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m  m  m  *  m  *  *  *  *  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  m  mm 

MAJOR  GENERAL  WILLIAM   C.    GORGAS 


66th  Congress,  3d  Session Senate  Document  No.  390 


jilemortal  g>ertoice$ 

Held  in  Honor  of 

fHajor  General 

l^iUtam  Cratoforb  <§orgas( 

By  the  [SOUTHERN  SOCIETY 
OF  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

•  [  •';•  •  \  -     •  •  :>  '  ;'  '  /^,  \    \  :-.";''•«  i\i  :x  '-,  •  :'*, 

PAN  AMERICAN  BUILDING 

JANUARY  16,  1921 

PRESENTED  BY  MR.  HEFLIN    .    .    FMRCAKT  14,  1921  —  Ordered  to  be  printed 
FEBRUARY  24  (calendar  day  MARCH  2),  1921  —  Illustration  ordered  printed 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 

WASHINGTON 

1921 

124.5 


ial  ^crimes  for  burgeon  General 

[From  the  proceedings  of  the  Senate,  Monday,  February  14,  1921] 

Mr.  HEFLIN.  Mr.  President,  on  the  night  of  January  16,  1921,  at  the 
Pan  American  Building  in  this  city,  memorial  services  in  honor  of  the 
late  General  Gorgas  were  held  under  the  auspices  of  the  Southern  Society 
of  Washington,  D.  C.  The  eloquent  and  splendid  tributes  paid  to  General 
Gorgas  by  Cabinet  officers,  other  officials  of  the  Government,  and  others, 
as  well  as  by  officials  and  diplomats  of  foreign  countries,  are  worthy  to  be 
published  and  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  Nation  that  he  served  so 
faithfully  and  well.  It  was  his  splendid  skill  and  genius  that  freed  the 
American  Continent  from  the  scourge  and  curse  of  yellow  fever.  He  led 
in  driving  this  yellow  plague  from  the  lakes  and  lagoons  of  Louisiana,  and 
he  destroyed  it  in  the  swamps  and  marshes  of  the  Panama  Canal  Zone. 
He  has  rendered  signal  service  not  only  to  the  people  of  America  but  to 
mankind  the  world  over.  This  great  man,  born  at  Mobile,  Ala.,  became 
not  only  a  national  but  an  international  character. 

Mr.  President,  to  the  end  that  the  speeches  and  messages  to  which  I 
have  referred  may  be  printed  and  preserved,  I  ask  unanimous  consent 
that  they  be  ordered  printed  in  the  form  of  a  public  document. 

The  VICE  PRESIDENT.  Without  objection,  it  is  so  ordered. 


467035 


Ucttcr  from  tfic  Cbatrman  of  tfje  <£xecuttbe  Committee 

THE  SOUTHERN  SOCIETY  OP  WASHINGTON, 

looo  Vermont  Avenue,  January  37,  1921. 
MY  DEAR  SENATOR  HEPUN: 

I  have  the  honor  to  transmit  to  you  the  addresses  delivered  at  the  Me- 
morial Service  in  tribute  to  the  late  Major  General  William  Crawford  Gorgas 
in  the  Hall  of  the  Americas,  Pan  American  Union  Building,  on  Sunday 
evening,  January  16,  1921.  The  material  includes  also  the  messages 
received  from  Presidents  of  certain  Republics  of  South  and  Central  America 
and  extracts  from  communications  bearing  upon  the  life  and  character  of 
General  Gorgas. 

This  material  is  submitted  on  behalf  of  the  Southern  Society  of  Wash- 
ington with  the  request  that  you  present  it  to  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  for  publication  as  a  Senate  document. 
With  sentiments  of  esteem,  I  beg,  sir.  to  remain, 
Cordially  and  sincerely, 

CLARENCE  J.  OWENS, 
C  'hairman  Executive  Committee. 

Senator  J.  Tuos.  HEPUN, 

Senate  Office  Building.  Washington,  D.  C. 


Jxeport  of  the  Committee  on  Program 

Pursuant  to  appointment  by  President  William  H. 
Saunders,  of  the  Southern  Society  of  Washington,  on  a 
memorial  to  the  late  Major  General  William  Crawford 
Gorgas,  the  undersigned  committee  hereby  decides  upon 
the  following  program  of  action,  namely: 

First,  to  memorialize  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
in  the  name  of  the  Southern  Society  of  Washington  to  set 
apart  a  site  and  erect  a  monument  to  the  late  General 
Gorgas,  commemorative  of  his  service  to  humanity. 

Second,  to  conduct  a  memorial  service  in  the  Hall  of 
the  Americas,  Pan  American  Union,  on  January  the  six- 
teenth, the  anniversary  of  his  appointment  to  the  office 
of  Surgeon  General  of  the  United  States  Army,  the 
memorial  to  be  of  a  most  formal  and  sacred  character, 
to  be  participated  in  by  the  officials  of  all  branches  of  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  and  foreign  representa- 
tives, the  addresses  for  the  occasion  to  be  delivered  by 
the  high  officials  representing  the  United  States  and  by 
representatives  of  the  foreign  countries  that  had  been 
recipients  of  direct  benefits  from  the  work  of  General 
Gorgas ;  the  addresses  together  with  a  complete  biography 
to  be  presented  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
through  Congress  for  publication  as  a  public  document. 

Third,  to  ascertain  if  there  is  a  painting  of  General 
Gorgas  that  is  approved  by  his  family  and  endeavor  to 
secure  a  copy  to  be  unveiled  with  appropriate  ceremonies 
in  one  of  the  public  buildings  of  the  United  States  in 
Washington. 

PETER  C.  HARRIS,  Chairman, 
CLARENCE  J.  OWENS,  Vice  Chairman, 

JOSEPHUS   DANIELS, 

CLARENCE  C.  CALHOUN, 
CLAUDE  N.  BENNETT, 

Committee. 

5 


jfHemonal 

Held  in  Honor  of 

Jttajor  (General  William  Cratoforb  (i>orga* 


IN    THE    HALL    OF    THE   AMERICAS,    PAN    AMERICAN    UNION 
WASHINGTON,    D.  C.,    SUNDAY    EVENING,    JANUARY    16,    1921 


of  WUtam  1$.  haunter* 

President  Southern  Society  of  Washington 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  It  is  most  appropriate  that  the 
Southern  Society  of  Washington  should  wish  to  come 
here  and,  in  this  beautiful  hall,  in  this  building  of 
international  import,  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  its 
late  member  and  former  president,  General  William  C. 
Gorgas.  The  Society  is  grateful  that  it  has  been  so 
eagerly  joined  in  this  memorial  by  the  distinguished 
men  and  women  of  the  United  States  and  from  abroad, 
who  best  know  the  perpetual  value  of  his  services  to 
mankind. 

He  left  us  in  the  serene  Indian  Summer  of  his  life,  at 
the  meridian  of  his  fame ;  a  life  replete  with  humanitarian 
effort  and  accomplishment;  a  fame,  born  of  those  con- 
tinuing attributes,  which  shall  make  it  endure  until 
time  has  ceased  to  carry  its  record  of  human  achievement. 

It  is  fitting  that  one  bound  to  him  by  ties  of  relation- 
ship, who  was  his  warm  personal  friend,  his  companion 
in  arms,  a  native  of  the  South,  a  member  of  this  Society, 
should  have  been  chosen  to  preside  at  this  meeting. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen:  I  have  the  honor  to  present 
Major  General  Peter  C.  Harris,  The  Adjutant  General  of 
the  United  States  Army. 

7 


MEMORIAL   SERVICES 


Opening  &bbre&*  of  fflaj.  &en.  Jeter  C. 

77i«  Adjutant  Central,  United  States  Army,  Presiding 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  The  Southern  Society  of  Wash- 
ington has  invited  you  here  this  evening  to  pay  tribute 
to  one  of  the  most  distinguished  sons  of  the  South — 
distinguished  not  only  in  the  South,  but  throughout  the 
Union  and  over  all  the  World.  Every  civilized  nation 
has  been  benefited,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  by  his 
work,  and  when  fatally  stricken  in  London  last  summer, 
he  was  on  his  way  to  Africa  to  study  yellow  fever  among 
savage  tribes  and  to  make  recommendation  for  the  elimi- 
nation of  the  disease  from  the  west  coast  of  that  con- 
tinent, where  it  has  prevailed  intermittently  for  three 
hundred  years. 

William  Crawford  Gorgas  was  the  son  of  Josiah  Gorgas 
and  Amelia  Gayle,  the  talented  and  beautiful  daughter  of 
Judge  John  Gayle,  an  eminent  jurist  and  statesman  of 
Mobile,  Alabama. 

Josiah  Gorgas,  the  father  of  William  Crawford,  was 
graduated  from  the  United  States  Military  Academy, 
West  Point,  in  1841,  standing  No.  6  in  his  class,  and  was 
appointed  Second  Lieutenant  of  the  Ordnance  Depart- 
ment, at  that  time  and  still  one  of  the  scientific  depart- 
ments of  the  Army.  While  yet  a  young  officer  he  was 
granted  leave  of  absence  in  order  that  he  might  go  to 
Europe  and  make  a  study  of  foreign  arms  and  arsenals. 

In  the  War  with  Mexico  he  rendered  distinguished 
service  during  the  siege  and  capture  of  Vera  Cruz.  After 
the  close  of  that  war  he  served  at  Watervliet  Arsenal  and 
other  arsenals  in  the  United  States  as  Assistant  Ordnance 
Officer  until  1853,  when  he  was  placed  in  command  of 
Mount  Vernon  Arsenal,  near  Mobile,  Alabama.  Here 
occurred  the  first  of  a  series  of  coincidences  connected 
with  the  life  of  William  Crawford  Gorgas.  I  am  not  so 

8 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


sure  that  it  was  simply  a  coincidence.  It  may  have  been 
a  controlling  factor  in  the  son's  life,  for  no  doubt  as  a 
child  he  often  heard  stories  of  yellow  fever  epidemics,  and 
very  probably  began  early  in  life  to  search  for  some 
means  of  combating  the  disease. 

The  surgeon  at  Mount  Vernon  Arsenal  was  a  young 
Dr.  Gayle,  son  of  Judge  John  Gayle,  who  had  served  his 
State  as  justice  of  the  supreme  court,  speaker  of  the  State 
house  of  representatives,  and  governor,  and  the  United 
States  as  Member  of  Congress  and  district  judge.  Soon 
after  the  arrival  of  Lieutenant  Josiah  Gorgas  at  Mount 
Vernon,  the  city  of  Mobile  was  visited  by  a  terrible  epi- 
demic of  yellow  fever,  forcing  many  to  flee.  Miss  Amelia 
Gayle,  with  a  little  niece  and  a  little  nephew,  sought 
safety  in  the  home  of  her  brother,  Dr.  Gayle,  at  Mount 
Vernon  Arsenal,  which  was,  at  the  time,  free  from  the 
terrible  disease.  There  she  became  acquainted  with  young 
Gorgas,  an  acquaintanceship  which  soon  ripened  into  love, 
resulting  in  their  marriage  in  December,  1853.  It  thus 
transpired  that  yellow  fever,  the  disease  he  so  successfully 
combated,  was  responsible  for  bringing  together  the 
mother  and  father  of  William  Crawford  Gorgas. 

In  1855  Josiah  Gorgas  was  promoted  to  the  grade  of 
captain  and  in  1856  he  was  transferred  to  the  command  of 
Kennebec  Arsenal,  Maine.  In  1858  he  was  ordered  to 
command  the  arsenal  at  Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
serving  there  until  1860,  when  he  was  transferred  to  the 
command  of  Frankford  Arsenal,  near  Philadelphia. 

In  April,  i '86 1,  he  resigned  from  the  Regular  Army  of 
the  United  States  and  moved  with  his  wife  and  children 
to  Alabama.  Soon  afterwards  he  was  appointed  by 
President  Davis  Chief  of  Ordnance  of  the  Confederacy,  a 
position  which  he  filled  with  credit  and  distinction  during 
the  entire  period  of  the  Civil  War.  Speaking  of  General 
Josiah  Gorgas,  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  said:  "He 

9 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


created  the  Ordnance  Department  out  of  nothing." 
General  Bragg  said:  "I  have  always  asserted  that  you, 
General  Gorgas,  organized  the  only  successful  Military 
Bureau  during  our  National  existence,  and  this  is  the  more 
surprising,  as  you  had  less  foundation  to  go  on  than  any 
other." 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  General  Josiah 
Gorgas  was  appointed  head  master,  and  afterwards  vice 
chancellor  of  the  University  of  the  South  at  Sewanee, 
Tennessee,  where  he  exhibited  the  same  administrative 
ability  which  had  characterized  his  control  of  the  Ord- 
nance Department  of  the  Confederacy. 

In  1877  he  was  elected  president  of  the  University  of 
Alabama,  at  Tuscaloosa,  Alabama,  but,  his  health  failing, 
he  resigned  shortly  afterwards  and  the  trustees,  with  great 
delicacy,  made  him  librarian  and  his  wife  matron  and 
provided  a  house  for  them.  He  died  May  15,  1883,  at 
Tuscaloosa,  surrounded  by  his  family  and  friends. 

Following  the  death  of  her  husband,  Mrs.  Amelia  Gayle 
Gorgas  was  elected  librarian  and  for  30  years  thereafter 
her  services  to  the  University  and  her  influence  in  the 
community  and  State  were  such  as  to  win  for  her  the 
admiration  and  affection,  not  only  of  the  faculty,  the 
students,  and  alumni  of  the  University,  but  of  citizens 
throughout  the  State.  Added  to  her  genius  for  friendship 
and  instinct  for  service,  Mrs.  Gorgas  possessed,  in  a  rare 
degree,  the  distinctive  charm  and  grace  that  characterized 
the  best  social  life  of  her  generation.  Her  death,  at  a 
ripe  old  age  in  1913,  was  deeply  mourned  and  her  memory 
is  still  cherished  by  all  who  knew  her  or  came  in  contact 
with  her.  William  Crawford  Gorgas  inherited  from  his 
parents  not  only  genius  but  that  courteous  and  gracious 
manner  and  sympathetic  nature  which  won  for  him  the 
admiration  and  even  affection  of  all  who  knew  him. 

William  Crawford  Gorgas  was  born  October  3,  1854,  at 
the  home  of  his  maternal  grandfather  in  Mobile,  Alabama, 


10 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


and  spent  his  early  boyhood,  from  7  to  n,  at  Richmond, 
Virginia,  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy,  where  he  attended 
a  private  school.  His  education  was  continued  at  the 
University  of  the  South,  Sewanee,  Tennessee,  and  later 
at  the  Belle vue  Hospital  Medical  College,  now  part  of 
New  York  University,  where  he  received  his  degree  in 
1879.  After  another  year  at  Bellevue  as  an  interne,  he 
was,  on  June  16,  1880,  appointed  Assistant  Surgeon  with 
the  rank  of  First  Lieutenant  in  the  United  States  Army, 
and  assigned  to  station  at  Fort  Clark,  Texas. 

On  August  3,  1882,  this  young  medical  officer  was 
ordered  to  Fort  Brown,  Texas,  adjacent  to  the  town  of 
Brownsville,  where  an  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  was  raging, 
though  he  himself,  at  the  time,  had  never  had  the  disease. 

A  few  nights  after  his  arrival  at  Fort  Brown  he  was 
called  to  the  bedside  of  Miss  Marie  Doughty,  who  had 
been  suddenly  stricken  with  yellow  fever,  Miss  Doughty 
being  at  the  time  a  guest  in  the  home  of  her  brother-in-law, 
Captain  William  J.  Lyster.  She  rapidly  grew  worse  and 
all  hope  of  her  recovery  was  abandoned.  Her  grave  had 
actually  been  dug,  and,  there  being  no  chaplain  at  the 
post,  Dr.  Gorgas  was  selected  to  read  the  services  at  her 
funeral.  Fortunately,  under  the  treatment  of  Dr.  Gorgas, 
Miss  Doughty  rallied,  but  before  she  had  completely  re- 
covered, Dr.  Gorgas  himself  was  stricken  with  the  terrible 
disease.  Dr.Gorgas's  quarters  were  adjacent  to  those  of 
Captain  Lyster,  and  during  the  period  of  their  convales- 
cence a  friendship  between  Dr.  Gorgas  and  the  attractive 
Miss  Doughty  began,  which  three  years  later  culminated 
in  their  marriage. 

Thus  yellow  fever,  which  in  1853  had  driven  the  beau- 
tiful Amelia  Gayle  from  her  home  in  Mobile,  Alabama,  to 
the  near-by  military  station  where  she  first  met  Lieutenant 
Josiah  Gorgas,  29  years  later  called  the  son  of  this  couple 
to  Fort  Brown,  where  he  met  and  saved  from  that  scourge 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


the  young  girl  who  was  to  share  his  life  and  who  now 
mourns  his  loss. 

The  life  work  of  the  man  to  whom  we  pay  tribute  this 
evening  will  be  eloquently  portrayed  by  other  speakers, 
including  the  Honorable  Secretary  of  War,  and  the  dis- 
tinguished representatives  of  foreign  countries  he  person- 
ally served. 

Born  and  reared  in  the  South  and  of  distinguished 
Southern  lineage,  it  is  not  surprising  that  General  Gorgas, 
upon  taking  up  his  residence  in  this  city,  became  an  active 
member  of  the  Southern  Society  of  Washington,  of  which 
he  was  later  elected  president. 

Another  distinguished  Southerner  and  Past  President 
of  this  Society  is  vice  chairman  and  has  been  the  moving 
spirit  of  the  committee  in  charge  of  the  services  to-night 
in  memory  of  General  Gorgas.  It  is  fitting  that  he  should 
tell  us  something  of  General  Gorgas's  life  and  of  his  con- 
nection with  the  Southern  Society.  It  affords  me  much 
pleasure  to  present  Dr.  Clarence  J.  Owens. 


of  Dr.  Clarence  3J.  Otoens 

William  Crawford  Gorgas,  an  Alabamian,  a  son  of  the 
South,  an  American,  known  and  beloved  by  many  nations 
of  the  earth;  as  gallant  as  his  heroic  father;  as  gentle  as 
his  southern  mother;  he  became  a  citizen  of  the  Empire 
of  Humanity  and  the  Kingdom  of  Man.  Now,  since  from 
the  field  of  service  he  has  reported  to  the  Commander  in 
Chief  of  the  Universe  and  is  now  a  citizen  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  his  spirit  lingers  and  his  life  is  a  benediction  and 
an  inspiration  not  only  to  his  friends  but  also  to  his  South- 
land and  the  Nation  that  he  loved  and  to  the  peoples  of 
the  earth  that  had  been  healed  by  his  ministrations. 

May  we  visualize  the  young  surgeon  in  the  United  States 
Army  reporting  for  duty  at  the  risk  of  his  life  at  the 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


yellow-fever-stricken  Army  post  on  the  Texas  frontier; 
ministering  not  only  as  physician  but  in  giving  spiritual 
comfort  to  the  dying ;  pronouncing  the  funeral  ritual  over 
their  bodies  and  finally  himself  stricken  with  the  dread 
disease?  During  this  period,  Mrs.  Gorgas,  then  Miss 
Doughty,  visiting  her  sister,  the  wife  of  an  Army  officer 
at  the  post,  was  herself  believed  to  be  dying  of  yellow 
fever.  Her  grave  was  selected  with  tender  care  by  the 
then  Captain  Gorgas  and  he  was  to  read  the  funeral  ritual 
over  her  body.  She  lived;  they  were  convalescent  in  the 
same  hospital;  were  married  and  through  life  moved  side 
by  side  in  the  great  service  of  mankind.  I  heard  this 
romance  from  the  lips  of  Mrs.  Gorgas  as  I  sat  with  her 
one  afternoon  in  Panama  looking  out  upon  the  Bay  of 
Panama  on  the  Pacific. 

Contrast,  if  you  will,  with  this  experience  from  the  sun- 
rise hour  of  the  professional  career  of  General  Gorgas  that 
other  hour  of  "sunset  and  evening  star,"  when  with  the 
highest  honors  of  his  native  land  and  the  decorations  of 
the  great  Governments  of  the  world,  he  was  on  a  mission 
of  humanity  at  the  call  of  the  British  Government;  his 
death  in  London;  the  memorial  service  in  historic  St. 
Paul's;  the  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  on  an  American 
transport;  the  interment  with  highest  military  honors  at 
Arlington;  and  through  it  all  the  tender  presence  of  his 
noble  wife,  sad  in  her  loss  but  proud,  no  doubt,  that  her 
own  had  wrought  so  well  and  had  so  honorably  won  his 
Nation's  plaudit:  "He  is  one  of  my  jewels."  In  paying 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  dead  we  join  in  honoring 
Mrs.  Gorgas,  the  gentle  colaborer  in  the  achievements  that 
will  be  the  theme  of  statesmen  and  diplomats  in  this 
memorial  service. 

The  Southern  Society  takes  a  just  pride  in  the  fact  that 
General  Gorgas  was  a  faithful  member  and  officer,  having 
served  as  an  active  member  of  the  Executive  Committee 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


during  the  administration  of  President  Claude  N.  Bennett 
and  for  two  years  as  President  of  the  Society. 

The  Society  in  simple  loyalty,  following  the  purest 
dictates  of  the  heart,  has  conferred  upon  a  committee 
under  the  chairmanship  of  Major  General  Peter  C.  Harris, 
The  Adjutant  General  of  the  United  States  Army,  himself 
a  son  of  the  South,  the  threefold  plan  of  honoring  the  name 
of  Gorgas.  The  first  is  fulfilled  in  this  memorial  service. 
The  second  will  be  carried  out  on  the  afternoon  of  March 
3,  during  the  annual  convention  of  the  Southern  Com- 
mercial Congress,  when  a  painting  of  General  Gorgas  by 
Mr.  Alexander  Robertson  James,  appointed  for  the  service 
by  Director  C.  P.  Minnigerode,  of  the  Corcoran  School  of 
Art,  will  be  presented  to  the  library  of  the  Surgeon  Gen- 
eral's office  of  the  War  Department  by  the  Southern 
Society  and  officially  received  by  the  Government.  The 
committee,  in  the  name  of  the  Society,  will  memorialize  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  to  select  a  site  and  make 
adequate  appropriation  for  the  erection  of  a  monument 
to  General  Gorgas  in  the  city  of  Washington  interpreting 
his  service  to  the  United  States  and  to  the  cause  of 
humanity. 

Tennyson  in  his  "  In  Memoriam"  sang: 

Strong  Son  of  God,  immortal  Love, 

Whom  we,  that  have  not  seen  thy  face, 

By  faith,  and  faith  alone,  embrace, 
Believing  where  we  can  not  prove; 

Thine  are  these  orbs  of  light  and  shade; 

Thou  modest  Life  in  man  and  brute; 

Thou  modest  Death;  and  lo,  thy  foot 
Is  on  the  skull  which  thou  hast  made. 

Thou  wilt  not  leave  us  in  the  dust; 

Thou  modest  man,  he  knows  not  why, 

He  thinks  he  was  not  made  to  die; 
And  thou  hast  made  him:  thou  art  just. 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


Among  the  names  "  not  made  to  die  "  is  that  of  Gorgas. 

Fame  herself  might  have  risen  from  her  throne  and 
placed  the  laurel  with  her  own  hands  upon  the  immortal 
brow  of  William  Crawford  Gorgas. 


General  HARRIS.  No  international  tribute  to  an  Ameri- 
can officer  would  be  complete  without  some  remarks 
from  the  representative  of  our  ally  and  supporter  in  our 
infancy  and  our  companion  in  arms  during  the  World 
War  which  threatened  the  destruction  not  only  of  the 
Republic  France  assisted  us  to  establish,  but  of  all  other 
existing  democracies  throughout  the  world. 

We  are  honored  by  the  presence  this  evening  of  the 
eminent  Ambassador  of  the  French  Republic,  whom  I 
now  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you,  His  Excel- 
lency, Mr.  J.  J.  Jusserand. 

•  • 

Stibrcss  of  tfje  Jfrend)  3mfaa*sabor 

MADAM,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN:  I  consider  it  a  high 
privilege  to  bring  the  homage  of  France  to  a  great  memory. 
France,  whose  contribution  to  medical  sciences  goes  back 
to  the  very  Middle  Ages,  has  ever  known  how  to  appre- 
ciate merit  in  this  line,  not  only  that  of  her  own  sons,  but 
that  also  of  the  sons  of  other  countries.  Our  admiration 
for  Gorgas  was  profound,  and  I  bring  here  the  expression 
of  it. 

Men  of  note  who  perform  during  their  lives  great  tasks 
are  of  two  sorts,  those  who,  in  the  span  of  their  existence, 
have  wanted  to  serve  their  country  and  also  themselves, 
and  those  who  have  desired  to  serve  nothing  but  their 
country  and  mankind.  Those  of  the  first  category 
usually  draw  more  attention  in  their  lifetime;  they  have, 
to  be  sure,  like  the  others,  much  merit,  but  their  merit 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


is  better  advertised.  The  others  have  only  merit  without 
advertising.  When  death  overtakes  both  sorts,  then  it 
infallibly  happens  that  the  fame  of  the  first  dwindles  and 
that  of  the  others  increases.  Of  the  latter  category  was 
among  us  French  Pasteur  and  is  among  you  American 
Gorgas. 

He  had,  throughout  life,  no  thought  but  to  serve. 
The  intensity  of  his  desire  to  help  and  the  magnitude  of 
his  work  left  him  no  time  for  personal  consideration. 
That  work  was  of  immense  import.  The  discoveries 
which  made  it  possible  began  with  a  son  of  France, 
Laveran,  and  his  studies  on  paludism  in  1880  and  with 
those  of  Finlay  in  Cuba  on  yellow  fever,  in  1881.  It 
seemed  an  impossible  battle  to  wage,  that  fight  against 
the  innumerable,  ever- increasing,  omnipresent,  intangible 
enemy,  the  mosquito.  How  could  one  get  rid  of  an 
inaccessible  pest?  That  means  was  found  by  Gorgas. 
Where  there  had  been  pestilence,  after  he  came  there 
was  health  and  prosperity.  Where  so  many  Frenchmen 
died  in  their  effort  to  dig  the  Panama  Canal,  Americans 
lived  in  health  and  security  after  Gorgas  had  established 
his  wise  regulations.  His  firm  and  gentle  hand  acted  as 
if  endowed  with  a  magical  power,  the  magic  of  good  will, 
kindness,  warm-heartedness. 

When  his  public  task  was  finished,  his  life's  task  was 
not,  for  his  duties  were  not  dictated  to  him  by  any  power 
abave  him,  but  from  a  power  within  himself,  his  ever- 
exacting  conscience.  He  told  me  so  when  I  saw  him  in 
that  city  of  Panama,  which  he  had  caused  to  be  what 
it  now  is,  the  beautiful,  radiant  capital  of  the  recently 
born  Republic.  One  of  the  worst  plague  spots  remaining 
in  the  world  was  Guayaquil,  and  I  remember  an  enter- 
tainment given  when  we  were  on  the  Isthmus,  in  which 
took  part  the  handsome  young  officers  of  an  American 
destroyer.  The  ship  was  ordered,  the  next  day,  to 

16 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


Guayaquil,  and  we  heard,  three  days  later,  that  the 
commander  and  several  of  his  men  were  dead  of  yellow 
fever.  Gorgas  has  been  there  since,  and  provided  his 
regulations  are  well  observed,  no  one  will  any  more  die 
of  yellow  fever  in  those  parts. 

He  died  in  full  activity,  tended  by  the  one  who  was 
throughout  his  life  his  devoted  companion  and  mainstay, 
and  when  he  closed  his  eyes  on  the  world,  of  which  he 
had  been  such  a  useful  citizen,  he  could,  with  a  serene 
heart,  say  the  Nunc  dimittis  servum  tuum;  and  think, 
my  day  is  passed,  but,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  it  has 

been  well  filled. 

•  • 

General  HARRIS.  Upon  the  organization  of  the  Rocke- 
feller Foundation,  General  Gorgas  was  made  a  permanent 
member  of  its  Board  of  Directors  and  served  in  an  advisory 
capacity  to  the  Foundation  on  all  matters  pertaining  to 
health  and  sanitation.  On  his  retirement  from  the  Army 
he  was  appointed  director  of  the  Yellow  Fever  Commis- 
sion of  the  International  Health  Board  of  the  Foundation, 
which  had  for  its  object  the  elimination  from  the  world 
of  this  disease.  While  serving  in  this  capacity  he  visited 
Peru,  where  yellow  fever  was  epidemic  in  several  centers. 
The  President  of  Peru,  appreciating  the  great  benefits 
to  be  derived  from  improvement  in  the  health  conditions 
of  his  country,  requested  General  Gorgas  to  accept  the 
position  of  sanitary  advisor  to  the  Government  and  to 
supervise  all  sanitary  and  health  work  to  be  undertaken 
in  that  Republic.  He  accepted  the  offer  and  would  have 
assumed  the  duties  on  January  i,  1921,  but  for  his 
untimely  death. 

The  eminent  Ambassador  of  Peru  is  here  this  evening 
to  deliver  the  tribute  of  his  country  to  the  memory  of 
General  Gorgas.  I  have  the  honor  of  introducing  to 
you,  His  Excellency,  Senor  Don  Federico  Alfonso  PezeL 

17 


MEMORIAL   SERVICES 


of  3>enor  lion  Jf .  3. 

Ambassador  of  Peru 

"To  live  in  the  hearts  of  those  we  leave  behind,  is  not  to  die." 
"A  servant  of  Mankind  and  a  benefactor  to  Humanity.1' 

The  first  quotation  expresses  the  veneration  for  the 
memory  of  the  man  to  whom  at  this  moment  we  are 
paying  the  homage  of  respect  and  admiration.  It  shows 
that  death  is  not  the  end  and  that  a  great  and  useful 
life  can  not  be  forgotten,  for  the  goodness  it  has  accom- 
plished lives  forever  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  remain, 
while  the  effect  of  its  goodness  endures  for  all  time. 

The  second  quotation  could  in  all  accuracy  be  inscribed 
as  a  fitting  epitaph  to  the  man  whose  memory  we  are 
honoring  to-night.  Perhaps  more  than  any  other  it 
would  embrace  in  a  single  expression  the  life  of  William 
Crawford  Gorgas;  for  verily  this  man  was  a  servant  of 
mankind,  and  his  work  has  proved  him  to  be  a  benefactor 
to  humanity. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  become  acquainted  with  this 
man  shortly  after  he  arrived  in  Panama  to  undertake  the 
cleaning  up  of  the  Isthmus  as  a  first  step  to  make  the 
cutting  of  the  great  waterway  feasible,  and  the  great 
undertaking  a  positive  success.  Fresh  from  his  achieve- 
ments in  Cuba  Dr.  Gorgas  brought  to  the  Isthmus  of 
Panama  some  of  his  associates  and  collaborators  in  the 
great  work,  and  with  the  modesty  that  ever  remained 
his  great  outstanding  virtue  he  organized  his  forces  and 
set  himself  to  the  task  of  duplicating  what  had  been  done 
in  Cuba,  but  on  a  larger  scale  and  under  conditions  more 
strenuous  because  of  the  increased  difficulties  and  obstacles 
to  be  encountered  and  of  the  grave  responsibility  that 
the  enterprise  in  hand  created. 

The  sanitation  of  the  Canal  Zone  and  of  the  terminal 
cities  of  Panama  and  Colon  was  the  preliminary  step 

18 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


towards  the  building  of  the  maritime  canal.  And  I  ven- 
ture to  say — and  I  feel  that  I  am  well  qualified  to  so 
declare  it  because  without  undue  presumption  on  my 
part  or  desire  for  notoriety,  I  may  safely  claim  to  be  one 
of  the  very  few  persons  in  this  city  who  lived  in  official 
life  in  Panama  both  during  the  years  when  de  Lesseps, 
the  great  but  much  misunderstood  French  engineer,  was 
directing  the  cutting  of  the  Isthmus  and  years  after  when 
the  work  of  the  American  engineers  was  successfully 
executed — and  so  I  venture  to  say  and  can  attest  to  the 
fact  that  one  of  the  most  insurmountable  obstacles  the 
French  canal  company  had  to  contend  with  was  the 
unhealthfulness  of  the  territory  in  which  the  great  work 
was  being  done. 

In  those  terrible  days  during  the  eighties,  man,  with 
all  his  intelligence  and  learning,  all  his  skill,  all  his  courage, 
was  as  a  frail  boat  tossed  upon  the  waves  of  the  mighty 
ocean  with  but  very  small  chance  of  reaching  in  safety  the 
distant  shore.  From  1 884  to  1 889  I  saw  men  arrive  from 
France  full  of  energy,  enthused  with  the  desire  to  accom- 
plish even  the  impossible,  impregnated  with  the  national 
trait  of  a  courage  that  knows  no  fear,  with  a  pride  of 
nation  and  race,  having  a  long  tradition  of  achievements 
legendary  in  its  character  but  in  effect  positive  and  real, 
I  saw  these  men,  many  of  them  young  engineers,  doctors, 
and  service  men,  arrive  one  day  to  become  stricken  on  the 
next  and  but  a  few  days  later  to  be  laid  in  their  resting 
place.  And  notwithstanding  this  most  terrible  toll  I  saw 
each  succeeding  steamer  from  France  bring  in  a  new  con- 
tingent eager  to  take  up  the  work  where  their  unfortunate 
brothers  had  left  off.  Of  my  own  colleagues  in  the  con- 
sular service  I  accompanied  to  their  resting  places  about 
a  score.  Yellow  fever,  black-water  fever,  and  every 
possible  tropical  disease  was  rampant  and  no  one  knew  in 
those  days  how  to  fight  against  the  terrible  unknown 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


enemy  of  mankind.  The  scourge  of  the  Tropics  more  than 
any  other  cause  served  to  defeat  the  French  in  their 
attempts  to  construct  the  canal. 

And  as  an  eyewitness  of  these  facts,  as  a  chronicler  in  a 
way  of  what  happened  on  the  Isthmus  in  the  two  epochs 
and  under  the  two  administrations,  I  wish  to  testify  here 
to  the  fact  that  the  failure  of  France  was  the  incentive 
that  made  possible  the  victory  of  America.  While  the 
conditions  existing  during  the  French  days  were  per- 
mitted there  was  no  human  possibility  of  carrying  on  the 
work  successfully.  Therefore  it  became  imperative  to 
first  attend  to  the  proper  sanitation  of  the  Isthmus. 

But  even  the  practical  American  mind  did  not  grasp  all 
the  value  of  this  until  the  effects  of  the  neglect  to  properly 
safeguard  the  lives  of  the  workers  was  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  American  people  by  the  sudden  recru- 
descence of  the  tropical  scourge,  as  a  result  of  the  influx 
to  the  Isthmus  of  a  great  number  of  unacclimated  peoples 
of  the  white  race. 

It  was  then  that  the  genius  of  the  man  to  whose 
memory  we  are  tendering  this  tribute  of  respect  and 
admiration  revealed  itself.  For  while  his  work  in  Cuba 
had  been  noteworthy,  it  was  in  Panama  that  he  reached 
the  pinnacle  of  greatness  because  of  the  marvelous  man- 
ner in  which  he  accomplished  what  had  before  seemed  to 
be  an  impossibility.  Not  only  did  he  eradicate  yellow 
fever  and  the  other  scourges  of  the  Tropics,  but  he  actually 
gave  to  the  forces  under  him  an  efficient  organization  so 
as  to  obtain  results  in  the  shortest  time  and  make  possible 
the  great  engineering  feat  that  this  country  had  obligated 
herself  to  carry  out  for  the  good  of  the  world. 

I  have  already  given  testimony  to  the  manner  in 
which  William  Crawford  Gorgas  did  his  work.  May  I  be 
permitted  to  add  that  it  was  done  with  true  modesty,  as 
only  a  man  of  his  temperament  could  do  it ;  always  giving 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


credit  to  his  collaborators,  stimulating  and  encouraging 
his  subordinates,  utilizing  brains  and  energy  wherever 
he  found  them,  and  thereby  proving  himself  to  be  a  true 
leader,  a  conscientious  guide,  and  wise  administrator. 
This  trait  of  modesty  and.  his  conscientious  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  worth  of  others  is  manifest  in  the  pages  of 
his  book,  Sanitation  in  Panama.  In  it  he  reveals  his 
true  nature,  and  in  doing  this  he  leaves  to  posterity  the 
hall  mark  of  his  undeniable  right  to  be  classed  among 
the  world's  truly  great  men. 

Speaking  in  this  book  of  the  discovery  of  the  prop- 
agation of  yellow  fever  by  the  stegomyia  mosquito  he 
says,  with  characteristic  loyalty : 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  discussion  as  to  who  deserves  the  credit 
for  this  great  discovery.  Undoubtedly  Reed  and  his  board  brought  all  the 
threads  together  and  actually  made  the  great  discovery,  but  Finley,  Stern- 
berg,  Carter,  and  others  started  the  spinning  of  many  of  these  threads. 
Like  all  great  discoveries  everywhere  it  was  gradually  led  up  to  by  many 
workers. 

But  if  others  made  the  discovery  it  was  Dr.  Gorgas  who 
gave  it  the  first  practical  application  in  his  work  as  health 
officer  of  Habana,  and  to  this  Dr.  Walter  Reed  has  given 
public  testimony  in  his  correspondence  with  Dr.  Gorgas. 
Writing  from  Washington  on  July  29,  1901,  he  says: 

That  you  have  succeeded  in  throttling  the  epidemic  appears  to  be  beyond 
question,  and  it  is  to  your  everlasting  credit  as  an  energetic  health  officer 
who  saw  his  opportunity  and  grasped  it.  A  man  of  less  discretion,  enthu- 
siasm, and  energy  would  have  made  a  fiasco  of  it,  whereas  you,  my  dear 
Gorgas,  availing  yourself  of  the  results  of  the  work  at  Camp  Lazear,  have 
rid  that  pesthole,  Habana,  of  her  yellow  plague.  All  honor  to  you,  my 
dear  boy. 

To  which  Gorgas  replied  later  as  follows: 

I  think  this  yellow-fever  work  will  reflect  great  credit  on  our  corps. 
Certainly  the  work  of  proving  the  mosquito  to  be  the  transmitter  of  yellow 
fever  is  as  important  a  piece  of  work  as  has  been  done  since  Jenner's  time, 
and  as  far  as  the  United  States  is  concerned,  probably  of  more  importance; 
and  as  yours  was  the  guiding  hand  in  the  whole  matter,  I  hope  that  some 
suitable  reward  will  come  to  you  more  substantial  than  the  general  pro- 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


fessional  recognition  which  you  are  now  getting  from  all  quarters.  I  am 
very  happy  to  shine  in  the  more  humble  r61e  of  being  the  first  to  put  your 
discovery  to  extensive  practical  application. 

After  Cuba  and  Panama  other  nations  invited  Gorgas 
to  give  them  the  assistance  of  his  genius  in  fighting  against 
endemic  diseases,  in  establishing  sanitary  conditions,  in 
making  whole  regions  suitable  to  the  white  man  as  he 
had  done  in  the  tropical  jungle  of  Panama.  Among  these 
nations  my  country,  Peru,  was  one,  and  at  the  instance 
of  President  Leguia,  General  Gorgas  was  invited  to  come 
there  and  he  was  consulted  on  a  general  and  broad  plan 
of  sanitation.  He  made  recommendations  and  his  counsels 
were  followed  to  the  extent  that  the  Government  of  Peru 
contracted  with  American  firms  for  the  thorough  sanita- 
tion of  32  principal  cities  and  arranged  the  enforcement 
of  a  regular  sanitary  and  hygienic  program,  realizing  that 
nothing  could  be  more  helpful  to  the  development  of  the 
country  than  the  making  habitable  to  the  white  man  all 
of  its  extensive  territory. 

It  was  while  in  the  service  of  my  country  that  General 
Gorgas's  end  came.  He  was  to  have  returned  to  Peru 
after  his  visit  abroad  and  there  to  have  taken  up  his 
residence  to  carry  out  his  all-important  work. 

President  Leguia  in  his  annual  message  to  Congress 
paid  tribute  to  the  memory  of  General  Gorgas  and  gave 
expression  to  the  grief  of  the  Peruvian  nation.  And 
to-day  the  President  sends  me  the  following  cablegram, 
which  he  asks  me  to  embody  in  my  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  one  who  in  Peru  we  learned  to  love,  admire,  and  re- 
spect: 

Please  express  in  my  name  at  the  memorial  service  in  honor  of  General 
Gorgas  the  profound  sorrow  with  which  I  share  in  the  mourning  over  the 
death  of  the  man  who,  during  his  exemplary  life,  filled  the  world  with  ad- 
miration for  his  unparalleled  work  in  favor  of  humanity.  Peru,  who  had 
the  fortune  of  securing  his  services  to  carry  out  the  sanitation  of  its  principal 
thirty-two  cities,  has  been  moved  to  the  heart  by  his  sad  loss  and  joins  me 
in  reverencing  the  memory  of  the  greatest  benefactor  the  suffering  world 
has  ever  had. 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


In  conclusion,  may  I  say  that  mine  has  been  a  personal 
acquaintance  of  the  most  intimate  nature  with  this  great 
man,  that  I  have  known  him  not  only  as  a  worker  but 
in  his  home,  in  his  everyday  life,  and  I  can  give  testimony 
to  the  fact  that  no  more  lovable  nature,  no  more  sym- 
pathetic friend,  no  more  true  man  and  perfect  gentleman 
ever  graced  a  high  position  and  shed  around  him  such  a 
light  of  kindliness  and  fellow-feeling  toward  his  neighbor 
as  did  our  departed  friend. 

A  noble  life  well  lived,  which  has  enriched  the  world 
with  deeds  and  examples  well  worthy  of  imitation,  was 
that  of  William  Crawford  Gorgas:  "Servant  of  mankind 
and  benefactor  of  humanity." 

"To  live  in  the  hearts  of  those  we  leave  behind,  is  not 
to  die." 


General  HARRIS.  In  1898  our  Army  under  Shafter,  with 
the  assistance  of  the  Cuban  troops,  defeated  and  forced 
the  surrender  of  the  Spanish  Army  in  Cuba,  while  our 
Navy,  under  Dewey,  Sampson,  and  Schley,  destroyed  the 
Spanish  fleets  on  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic  Oceans.  There 
remained,  however,  in  Cuba,  an  enemy  more  to  be  dreaded 
than  the  Spanish  troops,  firmly  entrenched  across  the 
path  of  progress  of  the  new  Republic.  How  the  forces 
under  Major  Gorgas  met  and  destroyed  this  insidious 
enemy  of  humanity  will  be  related  to  you  by  the  dis- 
tinguished Minister  of  Cuba.  For  his  work  in  Cuba 
Major  Gorgas  was  made  a  Colonel  and  Assistant  Surgeon 
General  of  the  Regular  Army  by  a  special  act  of  Congress 
in  March,  1903. 

I  have  the  honor  of  presenting  the  Hon.  Dr.  Carlos 
Manuel  de  C6spedes. 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


of  Br.  Carlo*  iHanuel  tie 

Mrs.  GORGAS,  Mr.  CHAIRMAN,  YOUR  EXCELLENCIES, 
LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN:  The  Republic  of  Cuba  that  I 
have  the  honor  of  representing  here  to-night  is  united  in 
history  to  the  world- wide  fame  of  General  William  Craw- 
ford Gorgas,  and  fulfills  a  duty  by  taking  part  in  these 
solemn  ceremonies  in  honor  of  her  great  benefactor. 

It  was  in  Cuba  where  his  brilliant  career,  so  full  of  notable 
and  useful  achievements,  reached  that  high  point  at  which 
he  ceased  merely  to  be  a  distinguished  servant  of  his  own 
beloved  country  to  become  a  benefactor  of  all  the  human 
race. 

General  Gorgas,  with  whom  it  was  my  privilege  to 
maintain  for  many  years  the  best  personal  friendship, 
came  to  us  with  the  glorious  legions  of  the  United  States 
of  America  that  with  the  Cuban  Army  of  Independence 
struck  the  last,  decisive  blow  for  the  freedom  of  Cuba. 

While  he  was  performing  his  great  work  among  us,  we 
had  numerous  opportunities  of  admiring  the  many  beau- 
tiful aspects  of  his  splendid  character  which  his  innate 
modesty  and  unfailing  kindness  enhanced  to  such  a  super- 
lative degree. 

It  is  very  pleasant  to  remember  that  one  of  his  most 
remarkable  qualities,  so  equally  shared  with  him  by  his 
good  wife,  was  the  enviable  power  to  make  sincere  friends 
and  to  bind  them  to  his  life  by  the  irresistible  charm  of 
rare  virtues. 

When  he  bade  us  farewell,  he  went  forth  as  a  knight- 
errant,  to  continue  his  task  of  sanitation  in  many  other 
countries  that  also  are  indebted  to  him,  like  Cuba,  for 
their  liberation  from  yellow  fever  made  possible  by  Dr. 
Finlay's,  a  Cuban  doctor's,  theory  and  the  sacrifice,  to 
prove  it,  of  a  few  young  and  generous  Americans  offered 
up  for  the  welfare  of  humanity. 

24 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


We  may  say,  without  any  exaggeration  whatever,  that 
on  his  departure  he  took  away  with  him  not  only  the 
official  recognition  of  his  exalted  services,  but  also  the 
real  affection  and  everlasting  gratitude  of  the  entire  Cuban 
people. 

Though  he  marched  in  an  army  and,  therefore,  with 
those  whose  stern  mission  it  is  to  destroy  human  life,  and 
may  it  always  be  as  then  for  the  triumph  of  right  and 
justice,  his  part  was  to  save  and  guard  and  multiply  the 
days  of  his  fellow  creatures. 

No  more  gallant  and  brave  commander  than  he  ever 
defied  and  vanquished  the  foe  under  the  form  of  pain  or 
plague  or  suffering. 

In  the  highest  and  noblest  sense  General  Gorgas  was  a 
great  warrior  and  a  great  liberator.  Wherever  he  went  his 
vast  general  knowledge  of  men  and  things,  as  also  his  sci- 
entific skill,  always  at  the  bidding  of  his  generous  heart, 
gave  aid  and  hope  to  the  afflicted  and  alms  and  Christian 
comfort  to  the  poor. 

The  consequences  of  his  great  life's  work  in  opening  up 
to  the  sunlight  of  health  and  to  the  blessings  of  intercourse 
with  the  world  many  erstwhile  infected,  though  rich  and 
beautiful,  regions,  can  never  be  overestimated  nor  for- 
gotten. Gorgas  honored  the  United  States  of  America; 
but  his  fame  and  his  work  now  belong  to  the  world,  and 
his  living  soul  may  well  look  down  upon  them  with  serene 
contentment.  His  untimely  death  called  forth  the  deepest 
manifestations  of  universal  sorrow. 

Assuming  to  express,  in  part,  my  country's  debt  of 
gratitude  to  General  Gorgas  in  this  modest  manner,  once 
again  I  shall  say  to-night  that  his  memory  is  dearly  cher- 
ished by  the  Cuban  people  and  his  name  revered  even  as 
those  of  our  own  great  national  heroes  and  liberators. 
Blessed  be  that  name  for  all  time,  for  General  Gorgas  was 
in  truth  a  most  noble  and  glorious  emancipator. 

25 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


General  HARRIS.  Colonel  Gorgas's  achievements  in  com- 
bating yellow  fever  in  Cuba  and  the  Panama  Canal  Zone 
attracted  the  attention  and  won  the  admiration  of  the 
civilized  world,  placing  him  foremost  in  the  ranks  of 
leading  sanitarians. 

In  1913  he  received  an  invitation  from  the  Ecuadorian 
Government  to  visit  Guayaquil,  for  the  purpose  of  inves- 
tigating health  conditions,  submitting  plans,  and  making 
recommendations  for  improvements.  After  having  ob- 
tained the  authority  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
to  do  so,  he  accepted  the  invitation  and  spent  about  two 
months  in  Guayaquil  studying  the  situation.  He  sub- 
mitted his  plans  and  recommendations,  which  were 
adopted,  and  as  a  result  of  the  work  that  was  done  imme- 
diately afterwards,  and  the  anti-yellow  fever  campaign 
in  1919  conducted  under  his  personal  supervision,  Guaya- 
quil to-day  is  free  of  yellow  fever  and  has  a  death  rate 
comparable  to  that  of  other  cities  of  South  America. 

The  distinguished  Minister  of  Ecuador  has  kindly  con- 
sented to  describe  the  work  of  Colonel  Gorgas  in  the  great 
seaport  and  metropolis  of  that  Republic.  I  have  the 
honor  of  introducing  to  you  the  Hon.  Senor  Dr.  Don  Rafael 
H.  Elizalde. 


3bbre*£  of  £)r.  Rafael  ft) 

Minister  of  Ecuador 

Mr.  CHAIRMAN,  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN:  The  Southern 
Society  of  Washington  has  honored  me  with  a  place  on 
this  program  and  has  requested  me  to  add  a  few  words 
to  the  many  eloquent  tributes  already  pronounced  in 
homage  of  the  great  human  benefactor  in  whose  memory 
we  are  gathered  here  to-night. 

I  first  met  Major  General  William  Crawford  Gorgas  in 
Chile,  at  the  First  Pan  American  Scientific  Congress,  in 
1908.  He  had  visited  Ecuador  before  that  date,  and  was 

36 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


interested  in  conditions  there.  When  we  met  the  next 
time  I  was  Minister  of  Foreign  Relations  in  my  country 
and  General  Gorgas  arrived  as  the  head  of  an  expedition 
sent  by  the  Rockefeller  Foundation  to  survey  the  ground 
in  order  to  formulate  a  plan  of  action  for  eradicating 
yellow  fever  from  our  beautiful  seaport,  Guayaquil. 
This  was  about  the  middle  of  1916.  It  is  a  well-known 
matter  of  history  how  he  sketched  out  the  plan  and 
mapped  out  the  campaign  which  was  carried  into  effect 
in  1918-19  under  the  joint  direction  of  his  disciple,  Dr. 
M.  E.  Connor,  and  Dr.  Becerra,  of  Ecuador's  Public  Health 
Department.  In  some  four  months  after  the  work  began 
actively  the  ancient  scourge,  which  had  held  Guayaquil 
captive  for  several  centuries  and  made  her  name  a  terror 
to  travelers  and  commerce,  had  been  exterminated,  and 
now,  since  May,  1919,  this  city  is  as  safe  for  human  life 
as  any  on  the  American  Continent. 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  adequately  state  the  magnitude 
of  the  debt  which  Ecuador  owes  to  the  scientific  achieve- 
ments of  General  Gorgas,  under  the  beneficent  Rockefeller 
Foundation.  Words  would  fail  to  tell  the  story.  But  if 
General  Gorgas  had  never  accomplished  any  other  work 
besides  that,  he  would  have  merited  the  grateful  tribute 
of  the  world  as  having  brought  about  a  wonderful  humani- 
tarian relief. 

Our  Government  has  voiced  its  recognition  of  all  this 
in  official  manner  and  the  record  is  inscribed  in  the  annals 
of  our  nation. 

But  standing  here  to-night,  as  I  recall  the  success  of  the 
work  done  by  General  Gorgas,  I  can  not  think  of  the 
celebrated  hero  of  science  or  the  famous  military  figure 
who  won  the  plaudits  of  the  world.  For  the  true  secret 
of  it  all  is  borne  in  on  me,  and  I  can  think  only  of  William 
Cra*wford  Gorgas — the  man.  That  quiet,  sympathetic, 
noble  gentleman,  whose  sincerity  and  crystal  honesty 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


inspired  admiration  in  all  who  met  him.  He  came  among 
us  with  outstretched  hand  and  purity  of  purpose,  winning 
our  hearts.  We  are  proud  to  owe  a  great  national  debt 
to  him. 

And  so  I  bring  no  massive  crown  of  laurel  to  deck  the 
hero's  tomb.  Many  others  can  do  that.  From  the 
Republic  of  Ecuador,  where  his  work  lives  after  him,  I 
bring  a  simple  wreath  of  blue  forget-me-nots  to  place 
around  the  name  of  the  friend  we  love,  knowing  that  "  we 
shall  not  look  upon  the  like  again,"  William  Crawford 

Gorgas. 

•  • 

General  HARRIS.  His  father  having  been  graduated  with 
distinction  from  the  United  States  Military  Academy  and 
having  served  with  credit  as  an  officer  of  the  Regular 
Army  for  twenty  years,  it  was  natural  for  young  Dr. 
Gorgas  to  select  the  Army  as  his  life  profession. 

He  entered  the  Army  as  a  Lieutenant  and  had  attained 
the  grade  of  Major  General  and  Surgeon  General  of  the 
Army,  the  highest  position  in  his  Department,  before 
reaching  the  statutory  age  for  retirement. 

We  are  fortunate  in  having  with  us  the  head  of  our 
Military  Establishment,  the  Secretary  of  War,  to  relate 
the  military  career  of  General  Gorgas. 

It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I  present  the  Hon.  Newton 
D.  Baker. 


3tobre*0  of  ?&on.  Jletoton  B.  JBafeer 

Secretary  of  War 

Two  sons  of  ^Ssculapius  were  renowned  alike  as  soldiers 
and  surgeons.  Throughout  the  ages  which  have  inter- 
vened military  medicine  has  struggled  for  recognition, 
reaching  its  great  triumphs  only  in  modern  times  and 
under  modern  conditions. 

•8 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


Both  the  art  of  war  and  the  science  of  medicine  have 
changed  the  art  of  war  by  the  substitution  of  long-range 
weapons  for  hand-to-hand  conflict,  thus  affording  an  op- 
portunity for  surgical  relief  to  the  wounded  which  was 
not  present  on  a  field  of  battle  where  of  each  two  com- 
batants one  not  only  wounded  but  slew  the  other.  The 
science  of  medicine  has  changed  from  an  empirical  appli- 
cation of  simples  and  herbs  to  a  great  and  systematic 
science  with  prevention  as  its  motto  and  a  body  of  knowl- 
edge about  the  human  body  and  the  possibilities  of  sur- 
gical and  medical  relief  undreamed  of  even  in  the  early 
years  of  men  now  living.  In  the  history  of  war  deaths 
from  disease  have  always  greatly  outnumbered  the  casual- 
ties of  battle,  and  as  armies  in  close  contact  moved  swiftly 
in  pursuit  or  in  flight  care  for  the  wounded  was  too  great 
a  handicap;  they  were  left  to  shift  for  themselves  with 
such  chance  ministrations  as  the  compassion  of  civilians 
might  supply  when  their  companions  had  passed  on  with- 
out them.  No  really  effective  system  for  the  evacuation 
of  wounded  from  the  battle  field  antedates  that  of  our 
own  Colonel  Letterman  in  the  Civil  War,  while  really  ade- 
quate field  and  hospital  service  to  marching  and  fighting 
armies  can  not  be  said  to  have  been  fully  installed  until 
the  World  War. 

There  is  not  time,  however  tempting  the  subject,  to 
illustrate  these  statements,  but  those  who  have  read 
Tolstoi's  War  and  Peace  and  remember  the  condition  of 
the  sick  and  wounded  after  the  battle  of  Borodino,  or 
who  remember  Florence  Nightingale's  description  of  the 
hospitals  at  Sebastopol,  and  at  the  same  time  are  even 
casually  familiar  with  the  amazing  triumphs  of  the  medi- 
cal profession  in  the  American  Army  in  France,  will  need 
no  further  evidence  of  the  fact  that  both  in  war  and  in 
medicine  we  are  the  children  of  a  new  age,  and  that,  ter- 
rible as  has  been  the  increase  in  the  effectiveness  of  the 

29 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


lethal  instruments  of  war,  a  more  than  corresponding 
compensation  has  been  effected  by  the  medical  profession 
in  the  protective  agencies  whereby  they  have  stamped  out 
plague  and  contagion  and  in  the  curative  procedures 
which  they  have  devised  to  relieve  and  restore  the  stricken 
soldier. 

The  conditions  under  which  armies  live  present  a  pe- 
culiarly favorable  environment  both  for  the  development 
and  spread  of  disease  and  for  its  prevention.  They  are 
made  up  of  large  numbers  of  men  in  close  contact,  under- 
going exposure  to  the  elements  and  often  debilitated  by 
severe  exertion.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are  for  the 
most  part  men  in  the  prime  of  life  with  resistance  to  dis- 
ease at  its  best,  and  living  a  disciplined  life  which  brings 
them  under  the  observation  and,  if  necessary,  the  control 
of  medical  officers  who  can  enforce  measures  necessary  for 
their  protection.  It  is  not  singular,  therefore,  that  as  both 
the  military  and  medical  arts  developed  and  generated  an 
atmosphere  congenial  to  research  and  discovery  great  ad- 
vances should  be  made  in  the  sum  of  human  knowledge 
available  for  the  relief  not  only  of  the  Army  but  of 
mankind  everywhere  as  well. 

It  was  into  this  period  of  the  development  of  military 
medicine  that  William  Crawford  Gorgas  was  born,  and  it 
was  singularly  fortunate  that  his  scientific  tastes  and 
education  were  superimposed  upon  a  character  which 
was  by  birth  and  instinct  that  of  a  soldier.  His  father 
was  an  officer  of  distinction  in  the  Confederate  Army;  he 
was,  as  it  were,  born  under  the  sound  of  the  bugle;  his 
youth  and  young  manhood  were  spent  among  the  veterans 
of  a  great  war  in  a  country  devastated  by  the  wastes  of 
war.  He  told  me  in  France,  in  1918,  that  throughout 
his  whole  life  he  had  been  fascinated  and  thrilled  by  mili- 
tary things,  and  that  his  favorite  reading  was  of  the  ex- 
ploits of  great  military  men.  He  was  able,  therefore, 

30 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


always  to  understand  the  soldier  and  adapt  himself  to 
the  disciplinary  coordinations  which  Army  life  entails 
and  which,  otherwise,  might  have  made  impatient  and 
less  fruitful  his  genius  as  a  man  of  science  and  research. 

General  Gorgas  entered  the  Army  on  the  isth  day  of 
June,  1880.  He  passed  through  the  various  subordinate 
grades  until  the  i6th  of  January,  1914,  when  he  became 
Surgeon  General  with  the  rank  of  Brigadier  General, 
which  was  increased  to  Major  General  by  the  provision  of 
the  Act  of  March  4,  1915.  He  retired  from  active  service 
on  the  3d  of  October,  1918,  but  was  recalled  and  remained 
in  active  service  until  the  ist  of  December,  1918.  In 
September,  1918,  he  accompanied  me  on  a  visit  to  our 
Army  in  France,  and  on  his  sixty-fourth  birthday  was 
actually  under  shell  fire  at  the  front  with  the  American 
Army,  to  the  interests  of  which  he  had  devoted  practi- 
cally his  entire  professional  life  and  upon  which  and 
through  which  he  had  conferred  services  of  inestimable 
value. 

In  1898,  during  the  American  Occupation  of  Cuba, 
Major  Gorgas  was  sent  to  Habana  in  charge  of  the  sani- 
tation of  that  city.  For  more  than  a  century  the  island 
had  been  scourged  by  yellow  fever,  which  broke  out  in 
frequent,  violent,  and  deadly  epidemics,  and  which  never 
really  wholly  abated.  This  plague  at  that  time  affected 
the  whole  archipelago  and  littoral  of  the  Caribbean  Sea, 
and  every  now  and  then  crept  north  into  the  United 
States  with  dreadful  mortality,  as  in  1878,  when  I  my- 
self remember  its  ravages  as  far  north  as  Memphis.  At 
about  the  time  General  Gorgas  went  to  Cuba,  the  sug- 
gestion originating  with  Dr.  Carlos  Finlay  that  yellow 
fever  was  carried  by  mosquitoes  had  been  taken  up  for 
serious  investigation,  and  the  heroic  demonstration  made, 
which  cost  the  life  of  Lazear  and  placed  his  name,  with 
that  of  Walter  Reed  and  Carroll,  high  on  the  scroll  of 

37023° — 21 3  31 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


those  who  have  offered  their  lives  for  their  fellow  men. 
The  response  which  General  Gorgas  made  to  this  dis- 
covery seems  so  simple  to  us  that  its  daring  is  not  easy 
to  realize.  Instead  of  protecting  persons  against  mos- 
quitoes, he  at  once  started  out  to  exterminate  the  pest, 
perfecting  methods  and  procedures  to  such  an  extent 
that  in  1904  he  was  sent  to  the  Canal  Zone  to  protect 
those  undertaking  the  construction  of  the  Canal.  Pos- 
session of  the  Zone  was  taken  in  May,  1904.  The  last 
case  of  yellow  fever  there  occurred  in  December,  1905. 
Thus  in  sixteen  months  yellow  fever  was  eradicated 
from  the  swamps  and  jungles  of  the  Isthmus;  the  native 
population  freed  from  its  decimating  attacks ;  the  workers 
of  the  Canal  Zone  protected;  and  the  actual  building  of 
the  Canal  made  possible.  As  one  looks  at  the  Panama 
Canal  now,  and  sees  the  ships  of  the  world  steaming  in 
stately  procession  through  the  continental  divide,  making 
in  eight  hours  a  journey  which  saves  the  rounding  of 
the  Horn  in  forty-eight  days,  he  both  marvels  at  and 
rejoices  in  the  superb  industrial  triumph  with  which  the 
genius  of  man  has  imposed  this  economy  upon  the  pro- 
visions of  nature.  The  great  engineers  who  carried  this 
work  to  a  successful  conclusion  will  doubtless  be  honored 
as  long  as  the  memory  of  man  retains  the  names  of  the 
great  constructing  geniuses  of  the  race,  and  with  them 
surely  will  be  recalled  the  name  of  the  great  doctor  who 
made  the  building  possible  and  saved  its  construction 
from  being  marred  by  having  along  its  banks  the  graves 
of  tens  of  thousands  of  victims  to  the  pestilence  of  the 
jungle,  which  for  ages  had  imposed  the  sentence  of 
death  upon  those  who  sought  to  join  the  two  oceans. 

These  triumphs  of  course  made  General  Gorgas  a  marked 
man  in  the  scientific  world.  He  was  called  upon  by 
learned  societies,  and  even  by  nations,  to  supervise 
their  efforts  to  eradicate  yellow  fever.  In  1918,  as  he 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


and  I  were  crossing  the  ocean,  he  described  to  me  one  day, 
with  an  impersonal  enthusiasm  which  delighted  in  the 
result  and  seemed  to  forget  his  own  great  part  in  its 
accomplishment,  that  there  were  only  two  or  three 
remaining  places  in  the  world  where  the  yellow-fever 
germ  still  lived,  that  he  was  in  process  of  extinguishing 
it  in  those  places,  and  that  when  he  had  succeeded,  this 
dread  destroyer,  which  had  levied  tolls  of  millions  of 
human  lives,  would  be  extinct  and  would  be  unknown 
except  as  works  of  medical  history  described  the  viru- 
lence with  which  it  used  to  rage.  After  the  cessation  of 
hostilities,  in  association  with  the  Rockefeller  Founda- 
tion General  Gorgas  went  to  South  America  in  the  interest 
of  his  plan  for  the  complete  extinction  of  yellow  fever. 

In  1913  General  Gorgas  went  to  South  Africa  at  the 
request  of  the  British  Government  to  supervise  the  sani- 
tation of  the  diamond  mines  and  to  protect  the  Kaffir 
employees  in  those  great  industrial  properties.  In  1920, 
again  with  the  cooperation  of  the  British  Government, 
he  started  on  a  visit  to  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  but  died 
in  London  on  the  way. 

I  have  not  the  technical  knowledge  which  would  be 
needed  to  describe  the  ingenuity  or  even  the  success  of 
the  activity  of  this  great  physician.  I  had  the  high 
privilege  of  daily  association  with  him  from  1916  through 
1918;  I  saw  him  summon  the  men  of  mark  in  the  medical 
profession  and  organize  them  into  a  great  agency  to  min- 
ister to  young  America,  which  we  were  then  collecting 
into  training  camps  and  sending  overseas  to  fight  our 
battles.  With  him,  I  had  the  high  privilege  of  visiting 
the  installations  on  the  other  side  and  noting  not  only 
the  adequate  material  provision  for  the  sick  and  wounded 
soldiers,  but  the  eminent  professional  skill  and  the  tender- 
ness with  which  the  sick  soldiers  were  surrounded.  He 
remained  to  the  last  hospitable  to  new  ideas  and  patient 

33 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


of  suggestions  from  inexpert  persons,  always  willing  to 
weigh  a  new  idea,  and  as  little  trammeled  by  precon- 
ceived ideas  or  traditions  as  any  man  I  have  ever  known. 
Those  who  are  to  speak  of  General  Gorgas  in  a  personal 
way  will  doubtless  describe  his  genial  and  gracious  man- 
ners, his  courtesy  and  considerate  treatment  of  all  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact.  I  prefer  to  dwell  upon  the 
youthf ulness  of  his  spirit.  If  indeed,  as  was  the  fact, 
he  was  born  in  one  age  and  lived  into  another,  he  became 
the  adopted  child  of  the  younger  age  and  was  as  elastic 
as  any  youth  in  it,  both  in  his  appreciation  of  the  things 
that  were  new  and  practical  and  his  acceptance  of  the 
better  for  the  things  with  which  he  had  once  been  ac- 
customed. 

It  was  appropriate  that  he  should  die  on  foreign  soil,  for 
he  had  become  a  citizen  of  the  world.  It  is  appropriate 
that  his  remains  shall  lie  here,  for  this  was  his  country; 
and  in  all  this  country  there  is  not  a  fitter  place  to  set  up 
his  final  tent  than  Arlington,  once  the  home  of  the  com- 
mander under  whom  his  father  fought,  now  the  West- 
minster Abbey  of  America's  heroic  military  dead,  over- 
looking the  Capital  of  the  Nation  which  he  served.  I  like 
to  think  that  his  death  was  as  he  would  have  wished  it  to 
be — on  the  battle  field;  not,  it  is  true,  in  a  shell-torn  no 
man's  land,  but  pressing  fonvard  with  his  face  to  the 
front,  seeking  still  to  pursue  and  conquer  the  enemies  of 
human  happiness  and  health ;  retired,  but  not  resting;  full 
of  years,  but  still  full  of  energy;  almost  unaware  of  the 
laurels  he  had  won,  in  his  eager  impatience  to  render 
further  service  to  his  fellow  men.  Physician  and  Soldier — 
he  fought  a  good  fight  and  won  the  only  kind  of  victory 
that  counts;  he  added  years  to  the  length  of  human  life; 
he  freed  countless  multitudes  from  sickness  and  premature 
death;  he  served  his  generation  and  won  a  place  in  the 
lasting  memory  of  all  mankind;  and  withal,  he  was  a 
modest  gentleman — this  Physician,  this  Soldier. 

34 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


General  HARRIS.  It  has  been  truly  said  that  the  open- 
ing of  the  Panama  Canal  has  doubled  the  effective  strength 
of  our  Navy  by  making  it  possible  for  the  Atlantic  and 
Pacific  Fleets  to  concentrate  on  either  ocean. 

Colonel  Gorgas's  work  in  Panama  made  possible  the 
completion  of  the  Panama  Canal. 

The  Navy  is  represented  this  evening  by  the  distin- 
guished Secretary  of  the  Navy,  whom  I  now  have  the 
pleasure  of  introducing  to  you,  the  Hon.  Josephus  Daniels. 


Extract  from  Sfofcrcss  of  &on.  fosepfjus'  Daniel* 

Secretary  of  the  Navy 

The  battles  of  physicians  are  won  in  the  quiet  sick 
chamber  against  disease  and  death.  For  them  no  martial 
music,  no  glamor,  no  glory  of  battle,  no  inspiration  of 
the  elbow-to-elbow  touch  of  comrade,  no  public  applause, 
no  national  honor,  no  monument,  no  memorial.  And  yet 
in  the  hearts  of  all  children  and  all  women  and  many  men 
there  is  erected  a  heart  altar  where  gratitude  and  affection 
minister. 

The  visitor  to  Washington  is  attracted  by  many  monu- 
ments and  statues  to  men  who  won  glory  in  war,  a  few 
to  distinguished  statesmen,  and  fewer  to  scientists  and 
scholars.  But,  great  as  is  our  debt  to  the  medical  pro- 
fession, the  American  people  through  their  Congress  have 
provided  no  bronze  figure,  no  memorial  of  the  skilled 
surgeon  in  our  National  Capital.  A  ride  through  the  miles 
of  streets  and  avenues  and  parks  and  visits  to  Capitol 
and  galleries  will  show  the  figure  of  only  three  men  of 
this  noblest  of  professions — Dr.  John  Gome,  in  Statuary 
Hall,  erected  by  the  State  of  Florida;  Dr.  Samuel  D. 
Gross,  in  Smithsonian  Grounds,  erected  by  American  phy- 
sicians and  surgeons;  and  Dr.  Samuel  Hahnemann,  at 
Scott  Circle,  erected  by  the  American  Institute  of  Home- 

35 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


opathy.  It  remains  for  Congress,  the  representatives  of 
the  American  people,  to  give  suitable  honor  to  a  surgeon 
of  world  repute,  the  same  honor  given  to  general  and 
admiral  and  President. 

An  isthmian  canal  was  the  dream  of  centuries.  Its 
construction  awaited  a  medical  triumph  where  engineering 
skill  had  failed.  We  can  not  honor  Gen.  Goethals  and 
the  other  able  engineers  too  highly.  But  the  world 
recognizes  the  truth  that  if  De  Lesseps  had  been  preceded 
by  a  Gorgas  the  canal  might  have  been  dug  by  France 
instead  of  America.  Important  as  engineering  skill  and 
modern  machinery  were  in  this  enterprise,  the  genius  and 
skill  of  Gorgas  were  essential  to  drive  out  the  disease 
which  had  made  all  previous  workers  its  victims. 

We  have  in  Washington  the  Walter  Reed  Hospital,  a 
living  memorial  of  an  eminent  surgeon  who  defeated  the 
scourge  of  yellow  fever.  Our  next  privilege  and  high 
duty  is  for  all  the  people,  through  Congress,  to  erect  a 
monument  or  memorial  in  commemoration  of  the  victory 
of  Dr.  Gorgas  over  the  enemies  of  man  in  Panama  and  all 
other  tropical  countries.  He  was  indeed  the  forerunner 
of  canal  builders.  He  was  more  than  that;  he  was  the 
preserver  of  life  and  the  pioneer  in  preventive  medicine 
which  will  save  millions  unborn. 

There  are  two  notable  tombs  in  Paris — one  of  Napoleon, 
one  of  Pasteur.  The  one  is  seen  by  all  visitors,  royally 
placed  and  lighted  as  seems  to  become  a  conqueror  who 
rides  to  fame  on  the  chariot  of  death.  The  other  must 
be  looked  for  in  a  by  street,  simple  and  dignified  and 
modest  as  becomes  the  scientist  who  made  impotent  the 
jaws  of  destruction.  On  the  same  day  I  visited  both 
tombs,  and  my  solemn  reflection  was  that  one  day  France 
would  give  first  place  to  Pasteur  and  second  place  to 
Napoleon.  When  the  world  thinks  more  of  the  genius 
of  science  which  saves  life  than  the  military  genius  who 

36 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


regards  humans  as  pawns  in  his  dream  of  imperialism — 
when  that  hour  comes,  Pasteur  and  Gorgas  and  their 
fellow  preservers  of  health  and  life  will  tower  above  all 
who  gained  fame  by  the  sword.  A  monument  to  Gorgas 
in  the  National  Capital  will  lead  the  way  to  national 
appreciation  of  science  and  medicine. 

•  • 

General  HARRIS.  It  was  not  engineering  difficulties  that 
ultimately  baffled  the  indomitable  De  Lesseps  and  his 
coworkers  from  France  in  the  early  efforts  to  build  a  canal 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  The  French  found  the 
Isthmus  a  veritable  death  trap,  and  during  the  nine  years 
of  then*  occupancy  they  lost  22,819  laborers  from  disease, 
with  the  result  that  Panama  came  to  be  known  as  "The 
White  Man's  Grave." 

After  his  success  in  Cuba,  our  country  turned  naturally 
to  Colonel  Gorgas  to  blaze  the  way  for  our  engineers  and 
laborers  when  we  undertook  the  completion  of  that  canal 
in  1907.  He  was  made  a  member  of  the  Isthmian  Canal 
Commission  and  as  such  remained  in  charge  of  the  sani- 
tation of  the  Canal  Zone  until  the  winter  of  1913,  when 
he  was  called  to  other  fields. 

The  honorable  Charge"  d'Affaires  ad  interim  of  Panama 
has  kindly  consented  to  tell  us  something  of  Colonel 
Gorgas's  work  on  the  Isthmus. 

It  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  present  the  Hon.  Senor 

Don  T.  E.  Lefevre. 

*  m 

\ 

gfobresg  of  g>eitor  Bon  3f.  C.  Hefebre 

Charge  D'Affaires  of  the  Republic  of  Panama 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  It  will  be  a  difficult  task  for 
me  to  pay  an  adequate  public  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
my  beloved  friend,  the  illustrious  scientist,  the  great 
American,  the  perfect  gentleman,  whom  we  are  honoring 
here  to-night. 

37 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


His  famous  and  unblemished  name  is  forever  linked 
with  that  of  my  country,  which  considers  itself  under  so 
great  an  obligation  to  him,  that  his  death  was  declared 
a  national  loss;  so  that  during  the  three  days  of  official 
mourning  the  emblem  of  our  small  nation  floated  at  half- 
mast  from  the  top  of  every  public  building  throughout 
the  whole  Republic,  showing  thus  the  sincere  grief  of  a 
grateful  people  for  the  loss  of  its  noble  benefactor. 

Were  his  remains  not  buried  at  Arlington,  I  can  affirm 
that,  with  the  exception  of  his  native  land,  Panama  would 
never  have  waived  its  legitimate  claim  to  that  sacred 
guardianship,  feeling  sure  that  he  could  not  rest  among 
better  friends  than  he  would  right  there  in  the  Isthmus, 
where  he  could  be  so  near  to  the  Panama  Canal — that 
wonderful  achievement  of  American  genius  and  enter- 
prise, made  possible  by  the  conquest  of  yellow  fever  by 
William  Crawford  Gorgas,  a  nobler  man  than  whom  never 
was. 

I  mentioned  before  three  days  of  official  mourning 
declared  by  my  Government  on  the  sad  occasion  of  the 
untimely  death  of  General  Gorgas.  I  used  the  word  official, 
referring  to  the  specific  time  of  three  de,ys,  to  emphasize 
that  the  real  national  mourning,  the  one  within  our  souls, 
has  never  ended.  We  of  the  present  generation  can  not 
and  will  not  forget  him. 

I  speak  for  the  President  of  our  Republic,  Dr.  Porras, 
and  for  myself  when  I  assure  you  that  although  we  are 
earnestly  endeavoring  to  further  honor  the  memory  of  our 
illustrious  friend  by  the  establishment  of  the  Gorgas 
Tropical  Institute  for  Research  at  Panama,  we  are  doing 
it  as  a  national  tribute,  as  a  fitting  monument  complimen- 
tary of  his  wonderful  work  in  the  Tropics,  as  an  oppor- 
tunity to  all  Americans  and  to  Humanity  to  erect  a  temple 
to  science  and  a  shrine  to  the  great  sanitarian  right  in  the 
center  of  the  field  of  his  victories  in  the  realms  of  peace, 

38 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


for  his  triumphs  were  not  in  the  cause  of  war.  He  fought 
malaria  and  yellow  fever  instead  of  men ;  he  saved  count- 
less human  lives  instead  of  destroying  a  single  one. 

We  intend  to  create  that  memorial  to  remind  the  future 
generations  of  the  brilliant  General  who  never  knew  what 
it  was  to  retreat;  who  did  not  subdue  nations  but  won 
their  hearts;  who  was  a  conqueror,  although  he  did  not 
conquer  peoples  but  disease;  and  whose  character  was 
so  sterling  and  so  pure  that  it  was  pictured  in  his  noble 
face,  full  of  personal  charm  as  well  as  radiant  with  the 
intelligence  of  his  genius.  We  do  not  need  such  a  memo- 
rial to  remind  us  of  the  work  he  did  for  civilization  and 
for  the  world,  which  he  made  better  by  the  mere  fact  that 
he  lived.  Deep  in  our  hearts  -we  have  in  Panama,  each 
one  of  us,  the  sweet  memories  that  he  left  therein  through 
many  years'  association;  through  his  unlimited  kindness; 
through  his  unbounded  gentleness;  through  his  brilliant 
mind;  and  through  the  greatness  of  his  noble  soul  which, 
it  seems  to  us,  is  still  floating  over  the  Isthmus  as  a 
Guardian  Angel  to  the  Panama  Canal  and  to  the  Republic 

of  Panama. 

•  • 

General  HARRIS.  Upon  his  return  to  London  in  March, 
1914,  after  serving  the  British  people  in  South  Africa, 
General  (then  Colonel)  Gorgas  was  entertained  by  the 
medical  profession  of  Great  Britain  at  a  banquet  at  Hotel 
Cecil.  It  has  been  stated  that  this  was  the  most  notable 
gathering  of  British  professional  men  ever  assembled  on 
such  an  occasion. 

On  his  way  to  West  Africa  in  1920,  to  serve  again  the 
British  people,  His  Majesty  the  King  of  England  ap- 
pointed a  day  on  which  to  invest  General  Gorgas  with 
the  Knight  Commander  of  the  Order  of  St.  Michael  and 
St.  George.  The  General  having  been  stricken  and  un- 
able to  present  himself  at  Buckingham  Palace  on  the 

39 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


date  set,  it  was  suggested  that  a  later  date  be  designated 
to  which  His  Majesty  replied:  "  If  General  Gorgas  can  not 
come  to  me  I  will  go  to  him."  Accordingly,  the  King 
went  to  the  Queen  Alexandra  Military  Hospital  at  Mill- 
bank,  and  there  invested  General  Gorgas  with  the  honor- 
ary order  of  knighthood.  His  Majesty  talked  for  some 
time  with  the  General,  and  thereafter  took  personal 
interest  in  his  condition,  receiving  daily  reports  and  send- 
ing messages  of  cheer. 

After  his  death  on  July  4  the  Royal  Society  of  Medicine 
made  plans  for  the  funeral  services  at  St.  Paul's  on  July  9. 
The  King,  however,  ordered  a  State  funeral  with  the  Life 
Guards  as  escort.  The  remains  of  no  other  American  have 
ever  been  so  signally  honored  by  the  British  Government 
as  were  those  of  General  Gorgas.  The  services  were  the 
first  ever  held  in  St.  Paul  for  an  American,  or,  so  far  as  I 
am  aware,  for  any  other  non-British  subject. 

Great  Britain's  tribute  this  evening  will  be  delivered 
by  the  distinguished  Military  Attach^  to  her  Embassy  in 
Washington.  I  have  the  honor  to  present  to  you  Major 
General  H.  K.  Bethell. 


Stress  of  fflajor  General  ft.  &. 

Military  Attacht  of  the  British  Embassy 

Mrs.  Gorgas,  I  have  to  express  to  you  the  ambassa- 
dor's profound  regret  that  he  was  unavoidably  prevented 
from  being  present  with  you  here  this  evening. 

Your  Excellencies,  ladies,  and  gentlemen,  the  finished 
orators  that  have  preceded  me  have  left  but  little,  if 
anything,  to  say.  This  evening  we  honor  the  memory 
of  a  man  whose  work,  whose  fame  are  destined  to  be 
remembered  and  to  grow  with  the  years.  His  is  the  glory 
of  the  saver,  not  of  the  destroyer.  As  a  scientist  adding 
to  human  knowledge,  as  an  administrator  making  knowl- 

40 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


edge  serve  mankind,  he  stands  apart  unrivaled  and  un- 
approached.  As  a  man,  his  was  the  engaging  simplicity 
of  the  truly  great.  It  was  my  fortune  to  know  him,  and 
to  have  known  him  I  count  one  of  my  privileges.  I  saw 
him  in  Panama,  and  there  I  realized  that  Panama  was 
his  memorial  and  his  monument.  There  he  had  achieved 
what  no  other  man  in  any  other  place  had  had  the  high 
courage  and  constructive  imagination  to  do.  There  is  a 
glory  and  a  fame  of  high  service  on  beaten  paths;  there 
is  a  greater  glory  and  a  greater  fame  of  high  service  where 
no  path  has  been  made  and  no  trail  blazed.  This  is  the 
glory  and  fame  of  General  Gorgas.  But  his  services  were 
not  limited  to  a  nation.  They  were  given  to  mankind. 
To  us  who  are  British  they  were  of  peculiar  value,  for 
we  have  many  tropical  possessions  which  present  diffi- 
culties of  health  maintenance  not  dissimilar  to  those  he 
faced  and  conquered  in  Panama. 

It  was  a  sad  privilege,  but  one  that  His  Majesty  the 
King  was  proud  to  seize  when  on  the  occasion  of  General 
Gorgas's  death  he  was  enabled  first  to  honor  his  memory 
by  arranging  to  attend  in  the  old  cathedral  of  St.  Paul's 
a  service  such  as  he  would  have  accorded  to  a  victorious 
British  general.  Again,  on  this  occasion,  in  the  capital 
of  his  own  country,  it  is  a  privilege  to  me,  a  Briton,  to 
testify  to  the  high  esteem  and  admiration  in  which  we 
hold  the  life  work  and  the  memory  of  General  Gorgas  as 
scientist  and  man. 


General  HARRIS.  Another  of  our  Allies  decorating  Gen- 
eral Gorgas  is  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Italy,  who  made 
him  a  grand  officer  of  the  Order  of  the  Crown  of  Italy  in 
recognition  of  his  distinguished  services  in  behalf  of  mili- 
tary sanitation. 

41 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


His  Majesty  has  sent  a  personal  tribute  which  will  be 
read  to  you  by  the  distinguished  Military  Attach^  to  the 
Italian  Embassy  in  Washington. 

I  have  the  honor  of  presenting  to  you  Colonel  Marquis 
Vittorio  Asinari  di  Bernezzo. 


{Tribute  of  &i*  JOajetftp  tfje  lUng  of  IJtalp 

Against  the  miseries  caused  by  the  Great  War,  there 
stands  out  as  a  shining  light  the  noble  task  undertaken 
by  those  who,  sparing  themselves  no  trouble,  devoted 
every  effort  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  humanity. 
Amongst  them  General  Gorgas  occupied  a  leading  place, 
and  whilst  the  slaughter  was  going  on  countless  precious 
lives  were  saved  by  his  endeavors.  I  consider  it  a  great 
privilege  and  honor  to  be  called  upon  to  pay  a  tribute  of 
recognition  to  his  memory  on  behalf  of  my  King  and  of 
my  countrymen. 


General  HARRIS.  While  all  civilized  nations  of  the 
world  have  been  benefited  either  directly  or  indirectly 
by  the  work  of  General  Gorgas,  the  United  States  and 
Latin  America  are  his  principal  beneficiaries.  It  is  thus 
peculiarly  appropriate  that  these  memorial  services  should 
be  held  in  this  beautiful  classic  Hall  of  the  Americas.  It 
is  also  fitting  that  our  host,  the  distinguished  Director 
General  of  the  Pan  American  Union,  should  deliver  the 
tributes  of  all  the  Americas  to  the  memory  of  General 
Gorgas. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  present  the  Hon.  Dr. 
L.  S.  Rowe. 

4* 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


Abstract  of  gbbre**  of  £)on.  U.  £>.  &otoe 

Director  General  of  the  Pan  American  Union 

It  is  most  fitting  that  this  international  organization, 
representing  the  free  nations  of  America,  should  to-night 
bring  its  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a  great  servant  of 
humanity,  and  it  is  no  less  appropriate  that  these  solemn 
services  should  be  held  in  the  building  which  typifies 
the  idea  of  international  service.  General  Gorgas  was,  in 
the  highest  sense,  a  typical  American.  I  use  the  word 
American  in  its  broadest  continental  connotation,  for,  if 
the  test  of  citizenship  is  service  to  the  community, 
General  Gorgas  deserves  to  be  regarded  as  a  citizen  of 
the  American  Continent.  His  readiness  to  respond  to 
any  call  to  serve  humanity  sets  a  standard  which  should 
serve  as  the  keynote  of  American  policy.  The  spirit  of 
mutual  helpfulness,  for  which  he  labored  throughout  his 
great  career,  is  to-day  the  guiding  principle  of  the  Re- 
publics of  this  continent. 


gfcbrcss  anb  Pcncbtction 
tfje  &eberenb  IWocrt  Cbang  2@rotoning 


Of  Stajff  of  Associate  Clergy  of  the  Church  of  the 
Epiphany,  of  which  General  Gorgas  was  a  member 

Will  you  pardon  me  if  I  ask  our  honored  chairman 
for  the  privilege  of  saying  but  a  word?  I  came  here,  in 
response  to  the  request  of  the  committee,  simply  to  pro- 
nounce the  benediction.  But  when  I  heard,  as  we  all 
have,  such  inspiring  tributes  to  the  memory  of  this  great 
and  good  man,  eulogies  than  which  I  have  never  heard 
any  more  eloquent  or  more  richly  deserved,  I  feel  called 
upon  to  say  that  without  which  this  memorable  occasion 
would  be  incomplete.  We  have  seen  take  shape  in  these 
noble  tributes,  stone  upon  stone,  a  beautiful  arch,  symbol- 

43 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


izing  the  life  and  works  of  General  Gorgas.  Sitting  in  the 
presence,  as  it  were,  of  the  League  of  Nations,  we  have 
listened  to  the  tributes  of  men,  but  shall  we  not  also  hear 
God  speak  ?  He  alone  can  complete  that  arch  by  placing 
therein  the  keystone,  completing  the  whole.  As  we 
listen  in  the  stillness,  we  fancy  we  can  hear  the  divine 
approbation:  "Well  done,  good  and  faithful  soldier  and 
servant,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord. "  Great  as 
General  Gorgas  was  in  all  the  ways  in  wihch  men  have 
eloquently  portrayed  him  here  to-night,  still  I  feel  that 
he  was  still  greater  as  a  man  and  a  Christian.  It  is  as 
such  that  I  would  speak  of  him — a  man  of  God,  who 
believed  in  and  followed  his  Christ.  He  lived  near  to  the 
church  he  loved,  and  before  passing  on  to  higher  service, 
there  was  placed  to  his  lips  by  a  British  chaplain  the 
bread  of  life.  This  his  widow  will,  I  am  sure,  treasure  in 
her  heart,  for  out  of  her  heart  she  revealed  it  to  me — as  the 
most  precious  memory  of  her  honored  and  distinguished 
husband.  Rev.  Dr.  McKim,  to  whom  General  Gorgas 
was  bound  by  warm  and  affectionate  ties  as  a  friend  and 
pastor,  said  of  him: 

I  regard  General  Gorgas  as  America's  most  distinguished  citizen.  Jesus 
said :  "  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for 
his  friends. "  It  was  of  men  of  the  character  of  William  Crawford  Gorgas 
that  the  Master  spoke.  He  gave  himself  unselfishly,  with  love  and  zeal, 
to  the  cause  of  mankind.  As  the  world's  greatest  physician,  he  laid  down 
his  life  for  humanity,  that  through  all  the  ages  humanity  might  be  the 
legatee,  the  beneficiary,  of  his  character  and  work. 

Jicncbtctton 

Grant,  O  God,  that  the  memory  of  this  sacred  hour  may 
be  grafted  inwardly  in  our  hearts  and  bring  forth  in  us  the 
fruit  of  good  living;  and  may  the  blessing  of  God  Almighty, 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  rest  upon  us  and  fill  us  with 
all  spiritual  benediction  and  grace,  that  we  may  so  live  in 
this  life  in  faith,  hope,  and  love  that  in  the  world  to  come 
we  may  have  life  everlasting. 

44 


letter*  anb  Cablegram* 


U.  S.  S.  "FLORIDA," 

Pernambuco,  January  14,  1921. 
SECRETARY  OF  STATE, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

One  can  not  contemplate  the  career  of  General  Gorgas 
without  a  sense  of  enrichment. 

The  beneficence  of  his  labors  reached  the  confines  of 
the  world.  His  field  was  humanity.  Not  this  generation 
alone,  but  the  countless  generations  of  posterity  will  call 
his  name. blessed. 

He  enriched  science.  He  enriched  life.  He  made  his 
country  proud. 

COLBY. 


[Translation] 

QUITO,  ECUADOR,  January  75, 

MINISTER  OF  ECUADOR, 

Washington. 

Please  express  to  Southern  Society,  in  the  name  of 
the  President  of  the  Republic,  adherence  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  the  honors  being  paid  in  the  Memorial  Service  to 
the  eminent  General  Gorgas,  whose  sanitary  work  in  this 
country  made  the  Ecuadorean  Government  and  people 
his  grateful  debtors  forever. 

MINISTER  OF  FOREIGN  RELATIONS. 


45 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


LEGATION  OP  COLOMBIA, 

Washington,  January  10,  1921. 
Dr.  CLARENCE  J.  OWENS, 

Vice  Chairman,  The  Southern  Society  of 

Washington  City. 

DEAR  SIR:  Having  transmitted  to  my  Government,  as 
I  intimated  to  you,  the  notice  of  the  homage  in  memory 
of  the  late  General  William  Crawford  Gorgas,  proposed  by 
your  Society  to  be  held  on  the  i6th  of  this  month,  I  have 
duly  received  from  my  Government  the  following  cable, 
which  I  have  the  pleasure  to  quote,  translated  into  Eng- 
lish, as  follows: 

In  the  name  of  the  Government  and  on  the  occasion  of  the  ceremony 
which  will  be  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  General  Gorgas,  please  express 
the  gratitude  of  Colombia  for  the  great  work  which  General  Gorgas  rendered 
in  the  service  of  these  countries. 

I  have  the  honor  to  remain, 
Yours,  very  sincerely, 

C.  A.  URUETA. 


LEGATION  OF  HONDURAS, 
Tegucigalpa,  January  /j  (-via  New  Orleans,  La.,  15). 

R.  CAMILO  DIAZ, 

Charge  d' Affaires  of  Honduras, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Please  convey  to  the  Committee  of  the  Southern  Society 
of  Washington  my  feelings  of  sympathy  on  the  occasion 
of  the  memorial  service  in  honor  of  the  late  Major  General 
William  Crawford  Gorgas,  that  great  benefactor  of  hu- 
manity, who  devoted  so  much  of  his  life  and  of  his  talents 
to  the  betterment  of  the  peoples  of  Central  and  South 
America. 

RAFAEL  LOPEZ  GUTIERREZ, 

President  of  Honduras. 
46 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


[Copy  of  cablegram] 

MONTEVIDEO,  January  8t 
PAN  AMERICAN  UNION, 

Washington. 

La  iniciativa  de  la  Sociedad  del  Sur  al  decidir  la  con 
memoraci6n  del  Cirujano  General  Gorgas  implica  realizar 
un  acto  alentador  de  reconocimiento  justiciero  al  que 
adhiero  sin  reservas. 

BALTASAR  BRUM, 
Presidente  de  la  Republica  Oriental  del  Uruguay. 

B   B 

[Free  translation] 

LEGATION  OF  COSTA  RICA, 
Washington,  January  8,  1921. 

MY  DEAR  SIR:  I  have  the  honor  to  state  that  I  have 
received  a  cablegram  from  my  Government,  in  which  it 
particularly  charges  me,  on  the  occasion  of  the  sacred 
services  to  be  held  on  the  i6th  of  this  month  in  memory 
of  Surgeon  General  William  Crawford  Gorgas,  to  convey 
to  your  Society  the  profound  gratitude  which  obtains  in 
the  Republic  of  Costa  Rica  for  the  great  services  rendered 
to  the  cause  of  humanity  by  that  eminent  citizen,  whose 
memory  it  is  fitting  to  perpetuate,  in  order  that  his 
beneficent  acts  may  serve  as  an  example  and  be  conserved 
in  the  memory  of  grateful  peoples. 

On  communicating  to  you  the  foregoing,  I  have  the 
honor  to  reiterate  to  you  the  assurances  of  my  distin- 
guished consideration. 

OCTAVIO  BEECHE, 

Minister  of  Costa  Rica. 
Dr.  CLARENCE  J.  OWENS, 

Vice  President  of  the  Southern  Society  of  Washington. 


47 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


[Cablegram— Free  translation] 

GUATEMALA,  January  16,  1921. 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  SOCIETY, 

Pan  American  Building,  Washington,  D.  C. 
The  Government  and  the  people  of  Guatemala  esteem 
it  a  just  duty  to  join  in  the  ceremonies  in  honor  of  General 
Gorgas.  It  is.  a  great  honor  for  me  to  make  known  the 
gratitude  of  this  country  toward  the  eminent  man  of 
science  and  action  who  always  used  his  great  knowledge 
in  favor  of  suffering  humanity,  and  whom  Guatemala 
will  always  gratefully  remember  for  his  beneficent  labors 
in  favor  of  its  public  health.  I  beg  your  Society  to  note 
that  the  memory  of  General  Gorgas  is  guarded  with 
imperishable  love  in  this  Republic.  It  gives  me  great 
pleasure  to  present  to  your  Society  the  assurances  of 
my  high  esteem. 

R.  HERRERA, 
President  of  the  Republic. 


MANAGUA,  NICARAGUA,  January  14,  1921. 

Dr.  ALEJANDRO  CESAR, 

Minister  de  Nicaragua,  Washington,  D.  C. 
On  the  occasion  of  the  Memorial  Service  in  honor  of 
Major  General  Gorgas  you  will  please  express  the  deep 
admiration  which  the  people  of  Nicaragua  feel  for  the 
eminent  services  performed  by  this  great  lover  of  humanity 
and  at  the  same  time  to  express  the  appreciation  of  the 
Government  of  Nicaragua  as  well  as  my  personal  tribute 
to  his  splendid  Pan  American  achievements. 

DIEGO  M.  CHAMORRO, 
President  of  Nicaragua. 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


[Free  translation] 

PANAMA,  January  16,  1921. 
PANALEGA,  Washington. 

I  beg  you  to  convey  to  the  members  of  the  Pan  American 
Union  my  full  and  earnest  cooperation  in  the  celebration 
in  honor  of  the  memory  of  General  Gorgas.  The  work  of 
the  Canal,  considered  as  a  new  marvel  of  modern  times, 
was  made  possible  by  the  disciplinary  and  energetic 
efforts,  and  the  firmness  and  uprightness  of  General 
Goethals.  But  the  accomplishment  of  such  a  great 
monument  of  wonderful  engineering  would  not  have  been 
possible  if  the  Canal  Zone  and  the  cities  of  Panama  and 
Colon  had  not  been  sanitated,  and  this  was  rendered 
possible  because  of  the  vast  personal  experience  which 
General  Gorgas  acquired  in  Cuba.  Thanks  to  General 
Gorgas  the  swampy  lands  and  islands  were  made  habitable 
and  permitted  men  of  science  and  workmen  to  begin  and 
complete  the  great  undertaking.  I  shall  always  retain 
happy  recollections  and  genuine  veneration  for  Dr. 
Gorgas,  who  was  full  of  energy,  firmness,  goodness,  and 
exquisite  accomplishments.  In  acknowledgment  of  his 
noble  character  and  his  meritorious  work  on  Isthmian 
soil,  Panama  has  begun,  under  my  Government,  the 
establishment  of  an  Institute  of  Tropical  Medicine  which 
will  be  called  "Gorgas  Institute,"  and  which  we  hope  to 
carry  to  successful  conclusion  with  the  aid  of  men  of 
science  and  American  philanthropists  which  I  hope  to 
obtain,  because  I  know  the  veneration  of  Americans  for 
their  great  men. 

BEUSARIO  PORRAS, 
President  of  Panama. 


49 


MEMORIAL    SERVICES 


[Translated] 

BLANCHET,  Legation  d'Haiti,  Washington,  D.  C. 

The  Government  of  the  Republic  is  happy  to  be  asso- 
ciated in  paying  homage  to  the  memory  of  Major  General 
Gorgas. 

By  their  general  character  and  their  practical  utility, 
the  scientific  works  of  this  great  citizen  of  the  United 
States  have  placed  him  in  the  highest  rank  of  the  bene- 
factors of  humanity.  His  name  will  merit  all  respect  and 
universal  admiration. 

Honor  and  glory  to  Major  General  Gorgas. 

DARTIGUENAVE, 

President  of  Haiti. 

m  m 

BRAZILIAN  EMBASSY, 
Washington,  January  n,  1921. 

MY  DEAR  SIR.  It  gives  me  much  pleasure  to  accept 
your  invitation  for  Sunday  evening,  January  16,  and 
to  join  with  you  in  the  solemn  service  in  commemoration 
of  General  Gorgas.  His  place  in  history  is  unique.  It 
does  not  often  happen  that  a  soldier  is  distinguished  for 
the  saving  of  life  rather  than  for  its  destruction,  or  that 
his  conquests  consist  in  the  mastery  of  natural  forces 
which  are  hostile  to  mankind.  Such  a  man  places  the 
whole  world  in  his  debt.  No  country  has  greater  reason 
than  Brazil  to  be  gratified  for  the  achievements  of  General 
Gorgas.  Lying  in  the  Tropics,  as  much  of  it  does,  my 
country  is  obliged  to  combat  all  those  diseases  which  are 
peculiar  to  equatorial  regions,  and  every  advance  made 
by  General  Gorgas  in  his  war  upon  them  contributed  to 
the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  Brazil.  It  was  the  opinion 
of  Humboldt  that  the  valley  of  the  Amazon  will  sometime 
become  the  seat  of  a  great  civilization.  By  showing  how 
the  diseases  which  infect  the  Tropics  can  be  overcome  and 
the  riches  of  such  regions  can  be  made  available  for  the 
service  of  mankind,  General  Gorgas  did  much  to  hasten 

50 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


the  fulfillment  of  Humboldt's  prophecy.     Brazil  gladly 
acknowledges  the  debt  which  she  owes  to  him,  and  I  shall 
be  gratified  to  join  with  you  in  doing  homage  to  a  life  of 
such  beneficence  and  distinction. 
Sincerely,  yours, 

A.  DE  ALENCAR, 
Brazilian  Ambassador. 
Dr.  CLARENCE  J.  OWENS, 

The  Southern  Society  of  Washington, 

uoo  Vermont  Avenue,  Washington,  D.  C. 


THE  HIGHLANDS, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
Mr.  WILLIAM  H.  SAUNDERS, 

President  Southern  Society  of  Washington, 

Washington,  D.C. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  SAUNDERS:  I  am  so  very  glad  to  have 
your  letter  in  which  you  speak  so  feelingly  of  Dr.  Gorgas, 
and  pay  him  such  wonderful  tribute.  It  was  my  inten- 
tion to  write  you  to-day  and  try  to  express  something  of 
the  gratitude  that  I  feel  to  you  and  the  members  of  the 
Southern  Society  for  the  very  beautiful  and  impressive 
memorial  service  in  honor  of  Dr.  Gorgas. 

Nothing  could  have  been  more  beautifully  carried  out, 
and  the  whole  service  from  beginning  to  end  was  most 
dignified  and  inspiring. 

I  am  filled  with  pride.  Such  splendid  tributes  and  the 
great  affection  and  esteem  manifested  on  all  sides  for  Dr. 
Gorgas  do  much  to  console  me  in  my  great  desolation. 

Accept  my  profound  thanks,  and  kindly  express  to  the 
members  of  the  Southern  Society  my  very  keen  apprecia- 
tion of  the  beautiful  memorial  service.  Your  letter  will 
always  be  treasured. 

Very  sincerely,  yours, 

MARIE  D.  GORGAS. 
JANUARY  20,  1921. 

51 


Ceremonies; 

At  the 

•presentation  of  tf)e  Portrait  of  tije  Hate 

frlaior  General  OTiUtam  Cratoforb 

TO   THE    LIBRARY   OF   THE    SURGEON   GENERAL'S   OFFICE 
WAR    DEPARTMENT,    MARCH    3,    1921 


In  the  Library  of  the  Surgeon  General's  Office  of  the 
War  Department  a  painting  of  the  late  Major  General 
William  Crawford  Gorgas  was  presented  to  the  War 
Department  by  the  Southern  Society  of  Washington,  the 
ceremonies  participated  in  by  representatives  of  the  diplo- 
matic corps,  the  officers  and  committees  of  the  Southern 
Society,  and  by  the  officers  and  delegates  attending  the 
Twelfth  Annual  Convention  of  the  Southern  Commercial 
Congress.  The  ceremonies  were  under  the  direction  of  a 
committee  under  the  chairmanship  of  Major  General  Peter 
C.  Harris,  The  Adjutant  General  of  the  United  States 
Army.  His  associates  on  the  committee  were  Dr.  Clar- 
ence J.  Owens,  vice  chairman;  Hon.  Josephus  Daniels, 
Secretary  of  the  Navy;  Mr.  Claude  N.  Bennett  and  Mr. 
Clarence  C.  Calhoun,  past  presidents  of  the  society. 

Mr.  William  H.  Saunders,  president  of  the  Southern 
Society  of  Washington,  presided.  The  painting  was  pre- 
sented on  behalf  of  the  committee  and  society  by  Dr. 
Clarence  J.  Owens,  past  president.  Upon  the  request  of 
Major  General  Harris,  chairman  of  the  committee,  the 
painting  was  unveiled  by  Miss  Edna  B.  Saunders,  daughter 
of  President  Saunders,  and  Miss  Marie  Louise  Owens, 
daughter  of  Past  President  Owens. 

S3 


PRESENTATION   OF    PORTRAIT 


Stress  of  fflr.  Mlltam  %).  gaunter* 

President  of  the  Southern  Society  of  Washington 

The  Southern  Society  of  Washington  has  again  the 
distinguished  honor  of  showing  its  reverence  for  the 
memory  of  its  valued  friend  and  member,  General  William 
Crawford  Gorgas,  by  presenting  his  portrait  to  the  Sur- 
geon General's  Office  of  the  War  Department. 

As  we  look  around  this  room  and  see  the  likenesses  of 
many  distinguished  men  who  have  served  their  country, 
and  serving  it  well,  they  not  only  served  their  country  but 
all  mankind,  we  recognize  their  influence  as  they  look 
down  to  us  from  the  generations  that  are  past,  for  they 
still  "rule  our  spirits  from  their  urns." 

If  there  is  any  one  who  more  than  another  deserves  the 
tribute  of  his  fellow  men,  it  is  he  who  has  warred  against 
invisible  forces  that  are  more  deadly  than  all  the  destruc- 
tive contrivances  of  man.  When  pestilence,  ghostlike, 
walks  abroad,  then  does  the  King  of  Terrors  reign  supreme. 
In  the  language  of  Sargent  S.  Prentiss  (and  no  one  so 
fully  realizes  it  as  the  soldier),  "  In  the  battle,  in  the  full- 
ness of  his  pride  and  strength,  little  recks  the  soldier 
whether  the  hissing  bullet  sings  his  sudden  requiem,  or 
the  chords  of  life  are  severed  by  the  sharp  steel " ;  and  may 
I  add  to  this,  that  the  man  who  struggles  against  fatal 
disease  wrestles  with  an  enemy  that  recognizes  no  armi- 
stice, accepts  no  surrender,  and  gives  no  quarter.  It  is 
against  this  subtle,  silent  enemy  of  mankind  that  General 
William  Crawford  Gorgas  fought,  and  where  before  there 
was  unequal  and  unsuccessful  warfare,  he  drew  courage 
from  despair  and  victory  for  mankind. 

A  committee  of  the  Southern  Society,  under  the  chair- 
manship of  The  Adjutant  General,  Peter  C.  Harris,  has 
selected  Dr.  Clarence  J.  Owens,  a  former  president  of  the 
Southern  Society  of  Washington,  to  make  the  presentation 
to  the  department. 

I  call  upon  Dr.  Owens. 

54 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GURGAS 


of  29r.  Clarence  3T. 

President  of  the  Southern  Society  of  Washington 

No  words  nor  eloquence  can  add  to  the  name  and  fame 
of  William  Crawford  Gorgas.  His  greatest  monument 
is  in  the  emotions,  enshrined  literally  in  millions  of  hearts 
in  both  hemispheres  and  around  the  seven  seas.  An 
Alabamian  by  birth,  he  became  a  citizen  of  the  world 
by  the  grace  of  God. 

The  Southern  Society  planned  a  threefold  tribute  to 
honor  the  name  of  Gorgas.  The  first  was  carried  out  on 
the  evening  of  January  16  when  a  memorial  ceremony 
was  conducted  in  the  Hall  of  the  Americas  of  the  Pan 
American  Union  Building.  The  addresses  on  that  occa- 
sion were  delivered  by  Mr.  William  H.  Saunders,  presi- 
dent of  the  Southern  Society;  Major  General  Peter  C. 
Harris,  chairman  of  the  memorial  committee;  Clarence 
J.  Owens,  past  president  of  the  Southern  Society;  Mr.  J.  J. 
Jusserand,  ambassador  of  France;  Sefior  Don  Federico 
A.  Pezet,  ambassador  of  Peru;  Dr.  Carlos  Manuel  de 
Cespedes,  minister  of  Cuba;  Sefior  Dr.  Don  Rafael  H. 
Elizalde,  minister  of  Ecuador;  Hon.  Newton  D.  Baker, 
Secretary  of  War;  Hon.  Josephus  Daniels,  Secretary  of 
the  Navy;  Sefior  Don  J.  E.  Lefevre,  charge"  d'affaires  of 
Panama;  Major  General  H.  K.  Bethell,  representing  the 
ambassador  of  Great  Britain;  Colonel  Marquis  Vittorio 
Asineri  di  Bernezzo,  military  attache  of  Italy;  Dr.  L.  S. 
Rowe,  Director  General  of  the  Pan  American  Union. 

Messages  were  read  from  the  chief  magistrates  of  many 
countries  of  the  world  in  tribute  to  the  achievements  of 
General  Gorgas  and  the  benefits  of  his  life  work  that  had 
gone  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own  land.  The  addresses 
and  messages  have  been  ordered  printed  by  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  by  unanimous  consent  and  this 
memorial  volume  will  be  placed  in  libraries  throughout 

55 


PRESENTATION    OF    PORTRAIT 


the  United  States  and  will  be  available  for  a  wide  dis- 
tribution for  private  libraries. 

To-day  the  second  part  of  the  program  of  the  Southern 
Society  is  realized.  The  painting  is  by  Alexander  Robert- 
son James,  an  artist  who  has  attained  high  distinction  in 
his  profession  and  who  entered  upon  the  task  with  enthu- 
siasm after  being  commended  for  the  service  by  Dr.  C.  P. 
Minnigerode  of  the  Corcoran  School  of  Art.  No  higher 
tribute  to  his  work  could  be  paid  than  that  embodied  in 
the  letter  addressed  to  General  Harris  by  Mrs.  Gorgas  in 
which  she  said:  "Yesterday  by  appointment  I  went  to 
the  Corcoran  Art  Gallery  to  see  Dr.  Gorgas's  portrait. 
It  pleases  me  more  than  I  can  say.  Mr.  James  has  suc- 
ceeded admirably  and  the  profile  is  so  like  Dr.  Gorgas  and 
so  lifelike  that  it  startled  me.  I  want  to  thank  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Southern  Society  most  heartily  for  the  thought 
that  resulted  in  this  beautiful  and  artistic  portrait  of 
Dr.  Gorgas." 

The  flag  used  in  the  unveiling  of  his  portrait  is  the  first 
United  States  flag  to  fly  over  an  organization  in  Europe 
after  we  entered  the  war,  it  being  the  official  flag  of  Base 
Hospital  No.  4,  Lakeside  Unit,  Medical  Department, 
United  States  Army.  This  organization  sailed  from  New 
York  May  8,  1917.  The  flag  was  carried  at  the  head  of 
this  organization  as  it  marched  through  the  city  of  Liver- 
pool, England,  May  18,  1917,  and  waved  alongside  the 
British  flag  at  Base  Hospital  No.  9,  British  Expeditionary 
Forces  in  France,  from  May  25,  1917,  to  November  25, 
1917.  It  is  considered  fitting  that  this  flag  should  be 
used  in  the  unveiling  of  this  portrait  as  the  organization 
over  which  it  waved  was  organized  and  sent  into  service 
during  General  Gorgas's  term  of  service  as  Surgeon  Gen- 
eral of  the  United  States  Army. 

The  society  plans  to  promptly  carry  forward  the  last 
part  of  its  program  and  will,  upon  the  reconvening  of  the 

56 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


Congress  of  the  United  States  during  the  coming  admin- 
istration, memorialize  Congress  to  select  a  site  and  make 
adequate  appropriation  for  the  erection  of  an  enduring 
monument  in  bronze  or  marble  to  be  placed  in  the  Fed 
eral  Capital.  It  was  but  natural  that  not  only  the  poet's 
breath  but  the  brush  and  chisel  should  be  consecrated  in 
interpreting  the  life  and  character  of  so  great  a  man. 

There  is  a  legend  to  the  effect  that  when  God,  in  his 
eternal  council,  conceived  the  thought  of  man's  creation, 
He  called  to  his  assistance  the  three  ministers  who  con- 
stantly wait  upon  the  throne,  Justice,  Truth,  and  Mercy, 
and  thus  addressed  them:  "Shall  we  make  man?" 
Then  answered  Justice,  "O  God,  make  him  not,  for 
he  will  trample  upon  the  laws."  And  Truth  answered, 
"O  God,  make  him  not,  for  he  will  pollute  the  sanctu- 
ary." But  Mercy,  falling  upon  her  knees  and  looking 
up  through  her  tears,  earnestly  exclaimed  "O  God, 
make  him,  and  I  will  watch  over  him  through  all  the 
paths  he  may  have  to  tread."  Then  God  made  him  and 
said  to  him,  "O  Man,  thou  art  the  child  of  Mercy,  go 
and  deal  with  thy  fellows." 

The  life  of  Dr.  Gorgas  was  one  of  mercy  and  ministra- 
tion. A  great  physician,  he  followed  in  the  footprints 
of  "The  Great  Physician,"  the  Man  of  Galilee.  He 
rests  in  the  narrow  tenement  of  the  dead  in  Arlington, 
but  his  spirit  continues  a  benediction  to  humanity. 

The  temple  of  civilization  has  been  building  through 
the  ages,  constructed  of  the  faith,  force,  sentiment,  and 
love  of  man,  its  foundations  built  of  convictions,  its 
pillars  of  faith,  its  windows  of  hope,  its  cement  the  blood 
of  suffering,  its  decoration  the  love  of  heroes.  In  this 
temple  the  name  and  fame  of  Gorgas  is  secure  from  the 
attacks  of  time  and  circumstances. 

With  tenderest  emotions  and  following  the  purest  dic- 
tates of  the  heart,  the  Southern  Society  presents  this 

57 


PRESENTATION   OF   PORTRAIT 


painting  to  the  library  of  the  Surgeon  General's  Office 
of  the  War  Department.  Now,  therefore,  on  behalf  of 
the  Southern  Society,  commissioned  by  the  committee 
appointed  by  the  Southern  Society  under  the  chairman- 
ship of  Major  General  Peter  C.  Harris  and  by  direction 
of  the  president  of  the  Southern  Society,  Mr.  William  H. 
Saunders,  I  have  the  honor  to  formally  make  the  pres- 
entation of  the  painting  of  the  late  Major  General 
William  Crawford  Gorgas  to  the  War  Department  of 
the  United  States. 


of  ZDr.  &icarbo  3f  .  £Hfaro 

Secretary  of  the  Interior  of  Panama 

The  very  unpleasant  situation  in  which  my  country  is 
at  present  has  kept  me  so  constantly  busy  and  worried 
that  I  have  not  had  the  time  to  prepare  in  an  adequate 
manner  a  speech  of  eulogy  of  the  great  American  in 
whose  honor  this  presentation  takes  place.  But  an  in- 
vitation to  make  a  few  remarks  about  the  illustrious 
personality  of  William  Crawford  Gorgas  is  one  that  I, 
as  a  Panamanian,  would  never  decline,  and  I  hope  that 
you  will  consider  my  poor  words  not  from  the  stand- 
point of  their  literary  value  but  only  as  words  coming 
from  the  very  bottom  of  my  heart  and  inspired  in  the 
admiration  and  love  which  that  great  man  deserved. 

Hero  worship  is  something  similar  to  a  religion  with 
men.  It  is  a  beautiful  and  noble  impulse  of  human 
nature.  But  that  impulse  becomes  a  duty  when  it  is  a 
question  of  honoring  those  men  who  have  brought  re- 
nown upon  their  names  and  glory  upon  their  country 
and  who,  moreover,  have  showered  down  on  mankind 
the  incalculable  benefits  of  their  science,  their  energies, 
or  their  virtues.  There  are  the  heroes  of  war  and  there 
are  the  heroes  of  peace.  The  former  shine  with  the 

58 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


dazzling  brilliancy  of  steel  and  gold  glittering  under  the 
rays  of  the  sun  and  their  names  resound  amidst  the 
thunder  of  guns  and  cannon.  But  how  dear  we  have  to 
pay  for  military  glory;  blood  and  tears,  misery  and 
mourning  are  its  forced  companions.  However,  honor 
is  due  and  is  justly  'given  to  the  brave  who  fight  and 
suffer  and  die  for  their  country.  The  heroes  of  peace 
are  not  so  brilliant.  Their  names  do  not  reach  the 
multitudes  so  easily.  Their  work  is  known  and  appre- 
ciated mostly  by  the  few.  But  how  much  greater  is 
their  intrinsic  merit.  Those  men  who  silently  and  con- 
stantly strive  and  labor  in  the  solitude  of  their  labora- 
tories or  cabinets;  those  who  do  not  fight  men  but  who 
struggle  against  the  unknown,  against  nature,  against 
ignorance,  against  prejudices,  and  who,  armed  with 
microscopes,  win  against  an  invisible  foe  the  wonderful 
battles  between  science  and  disease;  those  men  who 
sacrifice  everything  to  a  duty  that  they  alone  have  im- 
posed upon  themselves,  those  are  men  whose  memory 
should  always  be  an  object  of  reverence  and  worship. 
Bronze  and  marble  and  paintings,  prose  and  verse  should 
be  for  them.  Art  is  or  should  always  be  the  outburst 
of  a  great  and  deep  sentiment.  And  it  is  only  proper 
that  all  the  beauties  of  art  and  inspiration  be  devoted 
to  glorify  those  men,  so  that  their  image  may  find  a 
tangible  tribute  in  pictures  and  statues  and  an  ever- 
lasting altar  in  the  heart  of  every  good  citizep. 

William  Crawford  Gorgas  has  gone  down  to  history  as 
the  man  who  stamped  out  of  the  civilized  world  that 
dreadful  disease,  yellow  fever.  And  he  was  also  the  man 
who  made  possible  the  quick  and  efficient  termination  of 
that  titanic  work,  wonder  of  the  present  century,  the 
Panama  Canal.  It  is  only  just  to  say  that  other  men  had 
achieved  glory  for  their  work  of  research  in  the  same  field ; 
but  Gorgas  was  the  man  who  after  having  proved  by 

59 


PRESENTATION    OF   PORTRAIT 


experiment  the  theory  of  transmission  of  the  disease  by 
the  mosquito,  jumped  from  mere  experimentation  to  the 
practical  problem  of  stamping  out  the  deadly  evil,  through 
the  annihilation  of  the  mosquito  and  the  destruction  of 
its  breeding  places. 

This  great  problem  of  sanitation  was  undertaken  and 
solved  by  Gorgas  in  a  most  efficient  and  thorough  manner. 
At  the  same  time  he  was  so  careful,  so  considerate,  and 
so  gentle  in  his  methods  that  notwithstanding  being 
obliged  to  damage  to  a  certain  extent  the  people's  interests, 
to  destroy  customs  and  prejudices  that  had  existed  for 
generations,  he  succeeded  in  carrying  out  without  friction 
his  stupendous  task.  And  as  the  ship  crossing  the  seas 
leaves  behind  as  a  silvery  ribbon  her  beautiful  wake  of 
bubbling  foam,  he  left  behind  his  work  the  love  and 
admiration  of  everyone  who  came  in  touch  with  him. 

Suavity  was  the  predominant  trait  of  his  personality. 
He  did  not  belong  to  that  class  of  men  who  believe  it  is 
necessary  to  be  rough  and  harsh  for  the  performance  of  a 
great  duty.  Courtesy  was  the  means  that  paved  the  way 
for  the  easy  going  on  of  his  work.  His  voice  was  soft; 
his  manners  were  gracious  and  dignified,  and  a  kind  smile 
gave  a  touch  of  light  to  the  severe  regularity  of  his  fea- 
tures. When  one  looked  at  that  noble  head,  covered  with 
snow-white  hair,  and  met  his  eyes — blue  as  the  purest  sky 
of  the  southern  lands — one  could  not  help  being  irre- 
sistibly attracted  by  the  pleasing  magnetism  of  his 
wonderful  personality. 

The  Republic  of  Panama  was  the  theater  of  General 
Gorgas's  greatest  achievement,  and  his  memory  will  be  an 
everlasting  one  for  all  of  us  Panamanians  who  had  the 
good  fortune  of  knowing  him.  We  propose  to  have 
erected  in  his  honor  in  the  city  of  Panama  a  fitting 
memorial  to  be  called  the  Gorgas  Institute  of  Tropical 
Diseases,  an  institution  of  medical  research  and  experi- 

60 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


ment,  proposed  by  our  distinguished  President,  Dr. 
Belisario  Porras,  who  has  succeeded  in  enlisting  the 
valuable  aid  of  every  eminent  official  and  citizen  of  the 
United  States  to  carry  out  the  project. 

I  am  most  thankful  for  the  privilege  accorded  me  in 
requesting  me  to  talk  on  this  occcasion.  As  time  passes 
on,  men  like  Gorgas  become  greater  and  greater.  Let  us 
all  who  knew  him  have  in  his  life  and  career,  in  his  private 
and  his  public  virtues,  the  finest  example  and  inspiration ; 
and  if  we  want  to  cause  in  a  name  all  that  is  pure  and  noble 
and  kind  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  let  us  go  deep,  very 
deep  into  the  bottom  of  our  hearts,  find  out  our  most 
delicate  and  gentle  sentiments,  dip  our  pen  in  the  gold 
of  those  sentiments  and  then  write  in  glittering  characters 
the  name  of  the  great  patriot,  great  scientist,  and  great 
man  of  heart,  William  Crawford  Gorgas. 


of  £>urgeon  General  jH.  3H.  Ifrelanb 

There  is  no  story  in  preventive  medicine  so  entrancingly 
interesting  as  is  the  story  of  the  eradication  of  yellow  fever 
from  the  Western  Hemisphere.  What  makes  it  so  real 
to  us  is  the  fact  that  it  has  been  accomplished  within  our 
own  time.  It  was  but  a  few  years  ago  that  yellow  fever 
was  claiming  an  enormous  toll  in  human  life  every  year 
and  was  costing  the  governments  of  the  western  world 
millions  of  dollars  annually. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  recount  the  conditions  that 
surrounded  us  when  the  Army  was  to  go  to  Cuba  in  1898. 
We  assembled  at  Tampa  and  Port  Tampa,  and  the  medical 
men  of  the  country  who  were  supposed  to  be  experts  in 
handling  yellow  fever  through  years  of  experience  were 
sent  there.  Dr.  John  Guiteras,  of  Habana,  Cuba,  was  the 
leader  of  these  men  and  instructed  us  by  lectures  in  the 

61 


PRESENTATION    OF    PORTRAIT 


history  and  vagaries  of  this  disease  and  the  methods 
which  had  sometimes  proved  effective  in  handling  it. 
We  were  told  that  it  appeared  to  be  a  place  infection,  and 
to  substantiate  this  theory  it  was  cited  how  certain 
epidemics  had  been  stopped  by  removing  the  inhabitants 
but  a  short  distance  to  new  camps.  It  all  seems  strange 
now  that  we  had  not  learned  that  it  was  the  mosquito 
which  carried  this  trouble,  but  you  must  remember  that 
it  was  only  the  year  before  that  Ronald  Ross  proved  the 
transmission  of  malaria  by  the  mosquito.  Indeed,  for 
many  many  years,  even  as  early  as  1848,  the  belief  had 
been  advanced  that  yellow  fever  did  not  exist  except  where 
mosquitoes  were  in  abundance. 

When  we  landed  in  Cuba  our  plans  for  protecting  the 
command  from  yellow  fever  were  soon  annihilated,  for 
the  first  night  on  the  island  thousands  of  our  troops  were 
compelled  to  sleep  in  marshy  places  where  mosquitoes 
were  in  abundance  and  within  10  days  we  had  many 
cases  of  the  disease  in  our  hospitals.  You  all  know  the 
story  of  the  Fifth  Army  Corps,  how  it  was  almost  dis- 
organized, after  it  had  completed  its  campaign,  by  the 
inroads  made  on  its  personnel  by  yellow  fever  and  perni- 
cious malaria. 

It  was  in  this  campaign  that  I  first  met  Major  Gorgas. 
He  landed  at  Siboney  from  the  hospital  ship  Relief  on 
the  afternoon  of  July  7,  1898,  and  had  the  advantage  of 
the  rest  of  us  in  being  an  immune  to  yellow  fever  and  in 
having  seen  a  great  deal  of  this  disease  during  his  career 
in  the  Army.  He  immediately  took  charge  of  the  yellow- 
fever  hospital  just  above  Siboney  and  at  a  later  date 
he  came  to  Siboney  and  assumed  charge  of  the  hospital 
there,  for  we  had  learned  there  was  no  necessity  of  isolating 
patients  with  yellow  fever,  as  those  at  Siboney  were  com- 
ing down  with  this  disease.  It  was  here  that  Major 
Gorgas  showed  to  me  that  gentleness  and  consideration 
which  was  one  of  his  marked  characteristics. 

62 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


As  you  recall,  the  type  of  yellow  fever  our  troops  had 
in  Cuba  was  very  mild,  but  during  the  first  few  days  of 
August  a  man  died  of  a  virulent  form  of  the  disease,  and 
it  was  decided  to  hold  an  autopsy  to  ascertain  if  anything 
could  be  learned  from  the  conditions  found.  I  had  pro- 
ceeded a  short  distance  with  the  officers  who  were  to 
attend  the  autopsy  when  Major  Gorgas  asked  me  if  I 
thought  I  ought  to  be  present.  He  reminded  me  that  I 
was  not  an  immune  and,  as  we  did  not  know  the  method 
of  transmitting  the  disease,  I  might  be  in  danger  of  con- 
tracting it,  and  then,  in  his  very  kindly  way,  suggested 
that  if  I  would  go  back  he  would  personally  inform  me  if 
anything  out  of  the  ordinary  was  discovered. 

The  little  town  of  Siboney  was  destroyed  by  fire,  by 
order  of  the  commanding  general,  and  when  the  place 
was  abandoned  by  the  Medical  Department  vast  quan- 
tities of  medical  and  quartermaster  supplies  were  burned 
to  prevent  spreading  yellow  fever.  This  shows  how  far 
afield  we  were  as  to  the  transmission  of  the  disease  at  the 
very  dawn  of  the  day  when  the  truth  was  to  be  revealed 
to  us. 

The  great  activities  of  the  Army  were  soon  transferred 
to  Habana,  where  yellow  fever  had  been  endemic  for 
several  centuries.  Tremendous  efforts  were  made  to 
eradicate  the  disease,  or  at  least  to  minimize  its  incidence, 
by  every  sanitary  measure  known  to  the  profession  at 
that  time.  The  results  were  not  in  any  way  successful. 
The  disease  continued  as  usual.  In  1900  a  large  per  cent 
of  the  Governor  General's  staff  suffered  with  yellow  fever, 
and  several  of  them  died. 

For  many  years  a  vast  amount  of  work — we  might  say 
negative  work — had  been  done  to  ascertain  the  cause  of 
this  disease.  The  work  of  Sternberg,  Sanarelli,  Finlay, 
Wasdin,  and  Geddings,  with  a  host  of  others,  might  be 
mentioned.  While  these  efforts  proved  nothing,  they  did 

37023°— 21 S  63 


PRESENTATION   OF   PORTRAIT 


clear  the  way  for  the  work  of  Walter  Reed  in  Cuba,  which 
proved  conclusively  that  the  Stegomyia  mosquito  only 
transmitted  yellow  fever,  and  thus  gave  to  man  control  of 
this  dreadful  scourge. 

Major  Gorgas  was  at  that  time  the  health  officer  of 
Habana  and  followed  the  work  of  his  friend  Walter  Reed 
and  his  associates  from  day  to  day.  I  have  no  doubt  he 
had  visions  of  exactly  what  he  would  do  if  the  experiments 
with  mosquitoes  proved  successful.  As  soon  as  the  result 
of  this  work  was  made  known,  he  put  into  operation  the 
necessary  methods  for  eradicating  mosquitoes  from 
Habana,  or  at  least  for  reducing,  them  to  the  safety  level. 
The  doubting  Thomases  watched  his  work  with  keen 
interest  and  predicted  the  disease  would  return  with  its 
usual  virulence  as  the  hot  season  of  1901  came  on.  But 
in  this  they  were  mistaken,  for  the  number  of  cases  became 
less  and  less  and  at  the  time  yellow  fever  should  have  been 
at  its  height,  it  disappeared  from  the  island  of  Cuba  and 
has  only  appeared  once  since  that  time,  in  1906,  when 
another  officer  of  the  Medical  Corps  became  chief  sanitary 
officer  of  Cuba,  and  again  eradicated  the  disease  from  the 
island. 

Shortly  after  the  Army  left  Cuba  Colonel  Gorgas 
became  the  chief  sanitary  officer  of  the  Canal  Zone.  The 
history  of  the  work  there  is  well  known  to  the  world.  It 
is  the  culmination  of  this  interesting  story  in  preventive 
medicine,  and  just  as  long  as  that  story  is  told,  the  name 
of  William  Crawford  Gorgas  will  be  a  household  name  in 
the  Western  Hemisphere. 

Mr.  Chairman,  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Army 
now  has  a  history  which  covers  a  period  of  more  than  a 
hundred  years.  During  these  years  it  not  only  has  per- 
formed its  mission  in  the  Army,  but  its  members,  by  their 
scientific  work,  have  contributed  immensely  to  the 
alleviation  of  suffering  in  the  world  and  to  the  protection 

64 


MAJOR    GENERAL    GORGAS 


of  humanity  from  disease.  The  department  has  many 
proud  traditions  which  it  is  just  as  essential  for  it  to  per- 
petuate as  it  is  necessary  for  a  nation  to  glorify  the  epoch- 
marking  events  of  its  history.  The  department  has  many 
heroes — and  General  Gorgas  is  one  of  them — whose 
accomplishments  will  live  for  generations.  The  action  of 
your  society  in  having  a  great  artist  produce  the  likeness 
of  General  Gorgas  on  canvas  to  hang  here  in  this,  the 
largest  and  most  complete  medical  library  in  the  world,  is 
an  admirable  way  to  keep  in  the  minds  of  the  coming 
generation  the  accomplishments  of  this  eminent  member 
of  the  Medical  Department.  In  the  name  of  and  with  the 
individual  grateful  acknowledgment  of  each  member  of 
the  Medical  Department  of  the  Army  I  accept  this  portrait 
from  the  Southern  Society  of  the  District  of  Columbia. 


:* 


